Impact of radiotherapy boost on pathological complete response in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify the pathological complete response (pCR) rate after preoperative (chemo)radiation with doses of ⩾60Gy in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. Complete response is relevant since this could select a proportion of patients for which organ-preserving strategies might be possible. Furthermore, we investigated correlations between EQD2 dose and pCR-rate, toxicity or resectability, and additionally between pCR-rate and chemotherapy, boost-approach or surgical-interval.