The incidence of rectal cancer in the European Union is 15-25/100 000 per year. There is a 5-10% rate of locally recurrent rectal cancer (LRRC), with an overall survival rate of 40% at 5 years after complete resection. Curative surgery of LRRC requires multi-visceral resections which are associated with significant post-operative morbidity of 60%. Despite the combination of a potential curability and the high post-operative morbidity, there are currently neither good data from prospective randomized studies regarding optimum preoperative treatments for LRRC nor is there data assessing the efﬁcacy of response to any such treatments. Moreover, the widespread use of neoadjuvant radiotherapy for primary cancer introduced a new problem: the treatment of LRRC in previously irradiated area. Some studies investigated various modalities of reirradiation and showed acceptable late toxicity and encouraging outcome. GRECCAR 15 would be the first prospective randomized trial so far to evaluate the interest of pelvic reirradiation for LRRC, in previously irradiated patients.~The objective is to assess the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by pelvic reirradiation versus neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone on the rate of curative surgery (R0) in previously irradiated patients with LRRC.~Patients will be followed every 4 months during 2 years, and every 6 months the last year with chest, abdominal and pelvic scan and tumour markers.
GRECCAR 15 is focused on Locally Recurrent Rectal Cancer (LRRC) for patients with previous pelvic radiotherapy for the primary rectal cancer. This situation leads to a 20% higher risk of non-curative resection for the LRRC management (R1 status) impacting significantly the overall survival. The widespread use of neoadjuvant radiotherapy for primary rectal cancer introduces this new problem: the treatment of LRRC in previously irradiated area.~The objective of GRECCAR 15 is to assess the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by pelvic reirradiation versus neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone on the rate of curative surgery (R0) in previously irradiated patients with LRRC.