TP53 and rectal cancer: In rectal cancer, p53 expression was found to be predictive of response to preoperative chemoradiation (Spitz et al, 1997; Fu et al, 1998; Luna-Perez et al, 1998) and the p53 status correlated with the frequency of local recurrences (Sato et al, 1998; Adell et al, 1999).