[Cancer of the rectum: target volumes for preoperative radiotherapy]

Preoperative radiotherapy is the standard treatment for locally advanced resectable rectal adenocarcinoma. The total mesorectal excision leads to a dramatic increase of local control rate. Thus, the mesorectal space is the usual field for the spread of rectal cancers cells. It could therefore be considered as the clinical target volume (CTV) in the preoperative conformational radiotherapy. From the anatomical basis and radiological contributions, we propose several CTVs for different locations of rectal carcinoma.