In a study involving 1,128 patients with locally advanced rectal cancer, researchers compared the effectiveness of two treatment approaches: preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy with FOLFOX and chemoradiotherapy. The study found that FOLFOX was just as effective as chemoradiotherapy in terms of disease-free survival. After a median follow-up of 58 months, the hazard ratio for disease recurrence or death was 0.92 (with a 90.2% confidence interval of 0.74–1.14) for FOLFOX compared to chemoradiotherapy. The 5-year disease-free survival rates were 80.8% for FOLFOX and 78.6% for chemoradiotherapy. Overall survival rates were similar for both groups. These findings suggest that FOLFOX is a viable alternative to chemoradiotherapy for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who are eligible for sphincter-sparing surgery.

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