Xu B, et al. - Researchers retrospectively assessed pretreatment tumor thickness as a predictor of pathologic complete response (pCR) of stage II/III rectal adenocarcinoma to neoadjuvant chemoradiation (chemoradiotherapy [CRT]). Tumor thickness measured on magnetic resonance imaging was analyzed for patients who were administered neoadjuvant intensity-modulated radiation therapy or 3 dimensionally conformal radiation therapy concurrently with two 3-week cycles of chemotherapy; one week after CRT, 36% patients received 1 more cycle of the above chemotherapy and 55% received 1 to 2 cycles of FOLFOX6. In multivariate analysis, an association was observed between pretreatment tumor thickness and a higher probability of pCR after adjusting for radiation therapy-surgery interval time and pretreatment carcino-embryonic antigen level. Overall, pretreatment tumor thickness represents an independent predictor for pCR of stage II/III rectal adenocarcinoma to the neoadjuvant CRT.