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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Nov 24, 2025; 16(11): 106498
Published online Nov 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i11.106498
Published online Nov 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i11.106498
Endoscopic assessment of rectal cancer response after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy: A narrative literature review
Fotios Seretis, First Propaedeutic Department of Surgery, Hippokrateion General Hospital of Athens, Athens 15124, Attiki, Greece
Antonia Panagaki, Paraskevas Gkolfakis, Georgios Tziatzios, Konstantina Paraskeva, Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Nea Ionia “Konstantopoulio-Patision”, Athens 14233, Attiki, Greece
Co-corresponding authors: Paraskevas Gkolfakis and Georgios Tziatzios.
Author contributions: Seretis F wrote the manuscript and prepared figures and tables; Panagaki A, Gkolfakis P, Tziatzios G, and Paraskeva K performed data acquisition and writing; All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published. Co-corresponding authors have equally contributed in conceiving the manuscript idea; reviewed the literature and drafted the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest associated with this manuscript.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Georgios Tziatzios, MD, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Nea Ionia “Konstantopoulio-Patision”, Theodore Konstantopoulou 3-5, Nea Ionia, Athens 14233, Attiki, Greece. g_tziatzios@yahoo.gr
Received: February 28, 2025
Revised: June 17, 2025
Accepted: October 11, 2025
Published online: November 24, 2025
Processing time: 266 Days and 23.3 Hours
Revised: June 17, 2025
Accepted: October 11, 2025
Published online: November 24, 2025
Processing time: 266 Days and 23.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Endoscopic assessment of rectal cancer response after neoadjuvant treatment can accurately predict pathologic complete response when specific criteria are applied. The combination of endoscopic features, including the absence of nodularity and ulceration, and the presence of a flat white scar with telangiectasia, achieves a diagnostic accuracy exceeding 80% for predicting pathologic complete response before curative intent surgery. These findings support the use of en