Prospective Validation Study for the Proprietary Rectal and Anal Cancer Protein Expression Assays

Patients with locally advanced rectal and esophageal carcinomas typically undergo neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy prior to surgical resection. While response rates to this treatment differ among these three cancers, generally 20-25% of patients exhibit minimal or no response to preoperative chemoradiation therapy while 20-30% exhibit a complete pathologic response, and the remainder receiving a partial response. This will be a multi-center study of patients with newly diagnosed rectal adenocarcinoma, or anal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) who will undergo neoadjuvant chemoradiation prior to surgery. The tumor from these patients will be tested to determine whether response to neoadjuvant chemoradiation can be accurately predicted.