133 patients were treated. Median age 64,5 (68%<70aa and 31,6%>70aa). Ninety-two patients (69.2%) hadcT3 disease, and 28 (21,1%) cT2; 10 patients hadcN1a, 42 cN1b (Tab1). After surgery the most patients were pT3(n=63, 51,1%), the other pT2 n=42(31,6%); 87 patients (65,4%) were pN0, 14 (10,5%) pN1a, 14 (10,5%) pN1b, 6 (4,5%) pN2a, 6 (4,5%) pN2b(Tab1. Staging before treatment was performed with TC and EUS (n=42), only TC (n=48), RMN (n=42). Chemotherapy was 5-FU in 126 cases and Capecitabine in 20 cases, 2 other. Median days between Rt and surgery were 46 days. For the 133 patients analyzed, 25 (18.8%) showed a TRG 3, 49 (36.8%) a TRG 2, 46 (34.6%) a TRG 1 and 13 (9.8%) a TRG 0.
The TRG was statistically related to DFS (p <0.001), to MFS (p = 0.003) but not to LRFS (p = 0.85) and to DSS (p = 0.132),indeed patients bad responders (TRG 4) have a minor time to relapse locally and for distant metastasis. At the multivariate analysis only the TRG and the pathological stage were significantly correlated with DFS. The Cox regression (p = 0.033) showed an increased risk for relapse in patients with TRG 4 compared to good responders (HR 5.3) in relation to DFS.