Despite improved screening options, most patients with rectal cancer are diagnosed at a locally advanced disease stage. STANDARD TREATMENT/PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS: The treatment strategy includes preoperative radiochemotherapy as a cornerstone in order to improve sphincter preservation and local control. It is evident that radiotherapy can achieve improved local control even if optimal surgery (total mesorectal excision TME) is performed. TREATMENT INNOVATIONS, FUTURE PROSPECTS: Whether the neoadjuvant therapy should be applied as a long-term or short-term schedule is controversially discussed. The benefit of newer agents to improve systemic control is still under investigation. Modern radiotherapy techniques increase the effectiveness of radiochemotherapy and may reduce therapy-associated toxicity.