Modern management of
rectal cancer highly depends on the interpretation of high-spatial-resolution MRI, which determines the benefits from preoperative
chemoradiotherapy or
surgery alone. Accordingly, the baseline MRI
report plays a pivotal
role in
planning the
treatment. Although several structured
reporting templates for
rectal cancer staging on MRI are available, many
radiologists still use the free-text format. In this
review, we discuss the essential items for
reporting rectal cancer on MRI before
treatment to guide general
radiologists in preparing a qualified
report.