Jiang D, et al. - In this investigation involving 74 patients with locally advanced rectal cancers (LARCs) treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT), researchers assessed if novel molecular markers could predict which LARCs could be resistant to nCRT. Investigators found that BRAF-mutated LARC patients vs wild-type BRAF patients had shorter progression-free survival and shorter overall survival. Findings suggested that genetic mutations of BRAF and SMAD4 may be important molecular markers for predicting nCRT resistance and poor LARC prognosis. More cases are required in the near future to confirm these findings.