Treatment of Adenocarcinoma of the Rectum With Transanal Local Excision for Complete Responders

The purpose of the study is to determine if neo-adjuvant FOLFOX therapy and lengthening the time interval between neo-adjuvant chemotherapy and transanal local excision will increase the percentage of patients with pathologic complete remission. This is a prospective pilot study to examine the impact of two variables: 1) addition of neo-adjuvant FOLFOX chemotherapy, and 2) increasing the time interval between completion of chemo-radiotherapy and subsequent surgery, on the rate of achieving pathologic complete remission with avoidance of radical resection while maintaining an excellent local control with improvement of quality of life. All procedures in this study are standard of care, the study question relates to the use of neo-adjuvant FOLFOX and the timing between the end of radiation and surgery.