Local excision has a limited but important role in the modern management of patients with rectal tumors. The main criticism of the local treatment of early rectal cancer (T1N0M0 or T2N0M0) is the neglect of any potential metastatic mesorectal lymph nodes. This article presents the combined experience of several trials and indicates that neoadjuvant preoperative or adjuvant postoperative treatment may reduce the risk of local recurrence in a selected group of patients, and local excision results in overall survival comparable to the most aggressive treatment. Although the hypothetical improvement in morbidity and quality of life with local excision has not been demonstrated, the advantages of the local excision vs. radical surgery in the oncologic results seem obvious and require prospective randomized studies comparing both types of treatment.