This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows:

To determine the efficacy, safety profile, and potential harms of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, with or without biologics (e.g. anti-epidermal growth factor receptor, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor), given sequentially before or after neoadjuvant short-course radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy in people undergoing resection for locally advanced rectal cancer compared with no neoadjuvant chemotherapy.