Multidisciplinary assessment: a new concept for treatment of rectal cancer YAO Hong-wei*, LIU Yin-hua. *Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China Corresponding author: LIU Yin-hua, E-mail: liuyinhua@medmail.com.cn Abstract NCCN Clinical Practice Guideline in Rectal Cancer (Version 2009) covers 14 updates, ranging from diagnosis, multidisciplinary assessment, adjuvant chemoradiotherapy, neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, late-stage salvage treatment and targeted drugs, etc. It emphasizes the fact for the first time that the preoperative assessment of resectability for rectal cancer should choose rigid proctoscopy instead of proctoscopy, and ascertains that wide type KRAS gene is the only clinical indication of the targeted drug cetuximab for patients with rectal cancer, and proposes the relation between microsatellite instability (MSI) and prognosis and sensitivity of chemotherapy. The annual meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2009 took the concept of “personalizing cancer care”as the subject, which evokes great resonance in oncological field. Besides personalized therapy, it includes personalized cancer risk evaluation, survival planning, palliative treatment for late-stage patients and personalized nursing, as well. Understanding the updates in oncology exactly and emphasizing a scientific multidisciplinary assessment will provide a solid foundation for promoting the level of clinical practice in rectal cancer.