Doctors in the future might decide not to prescribe radiation to patients with rectal cancer. A study was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine that found that another treatment for rectal cancer worked just as well as radiation. The study analyzed data from 1,194 participants, over the course of six years, ​​from June 2012 through December 2018. Of the 1,128 of those that needed treatment, 585 of them were given a FOLFOX regimen (which includes the drugs fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin). The remaining 543 were given radiation. After both groups were given these treatments they received surgery.

The results for each group were very similar. Five year disease free survival was 80.8% in the FOLFOX group and 78.6% in the radiation group. This is excellent news. Although both treatments are unpleasant to undergo, with both treatments causing side effects like nausea, diarrhea, constipation, neuropathy, and pain, radiation is more likely to cause permanent damage. Chemoradiotherapy can have serious long term side effects for people with rectal cancer. It can cause chronic diarrhea, infertility, sexual dysfunction, and pelvic fractures. It can even cause additional cancers. This is why the study was done, to see if there are treatments that are just as effective as radiation, without being as damaging to the body. And the results are incredibly promising.

However, there has been no research studying the longterm differences between patients given radiation versus patients given treatments like FOLFOX. In twenty or thirty years we will know more concretetly whether or not a FOLFOX regimen or something similar can actually eliminate the need for chemoradiotherapy. 

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