Surgical specimens from 145 patients with residual rectal cancer after preoperative CRT between January 2006 and January 2011 were used to evaluate HER2 status.
While patients with breast cancers are not subjected to the adverse side effects of tamoxifen or trastuzumab if their tumors are negative for estrogen, progesterone or Her-2/Neu, neoadjuvant ionizing radiation with concurrent chemotherapeutic agents is administered almost universally to patients with stage II/III rectal cancers.