ClinicalTrials.gg
Not yet recruitingNCT07397442Updated Feb 11, 2026

Short-Course Radiotherapy Combined With Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy in Mid-Low Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer

A Phase 2 interventional study of Short-Course Radiotherapy Combined with Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy in Rectal Cancer, Adenocarcinoma, Rectal Cancer Stage II and Rectal Cancer Stage III, sponsored by Beijing Friendship Hospital. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in China. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-02-11.

Sponsored by Beijing Friendship Hospital · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
19
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to test a new combination treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer (cancer in the lower or middle part of the rectum that has not spread to distant organs). The study aims to increase the chance of making the tumor disappear completely (called "complete response") and improve the quality of life by increasing the rate of anal sphincter preservation (avoiding permanent colostomy bags).

The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does the combination of short-course radiation therapy, two types of immunotherapy drugs (Qibeian and Aike), and chemotherapy (XELOX) increase the complete response rate to over 50%? Is this combination treatment safe, and what are the side effects? Can this treatment help more patients keep their anal function and avoid permanent stomas?

This is a single-arm study, meaning all participants will receive the experimental treatment (there is no placebo or control group).

Participants will:

Receive short-course radiation therapy (25 Gy total, given once daily for 5 consecutive days). The radiation will target only the tumor and visible lymph nodes, intentionally avoiding unaffected lymph node areas to protect the immune system.

Receive Qibei'an (a dual immunotherapy drug targeting both PD-1 and CTLA-4) once, 2 days after completing radiation.

Receive Camrelizumab (a PD-1 immunotherapy drug) three times, combined with XELOX chemotherapy.

Receive XELOX chemotherapy (Oxaliplatin ivgtt on Day 1, plus Capecitabine pills taken twice daily for 14 days, for each cycle) for up to 3 cycles.

Undergo detailed assessments after treatment, including MRI scans, colonoscopy with biopsies, and blood tests (including ctDNA tests), to determine if the tumor has disappeared or if surgery is needed.

Attend regular follow-up visits for up to 5 years after treatment (or surgery) to monitor for recurrence and assess quality of life.

The study will enroll approximately 19 patients at Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University. An independent safety monitoring board will regularly review the data to ensure participant safety.

02

Conditions studied

  • Rectal Cancer, Adenocarcinoma
  • Rectal Cancer Stage II
  • Rectal Cancer Stage III

Keywords

  • locally advanced rectal cancer
  • short-course radiotherapy
  • anti-PD1
  • anti-CTLA4
  • complete response
03

In context

Rectal Neoplasms

2,400 studies on the registry are indexed under Rectal Neoplasms; 587 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 19 is below the median of 65 across 1,751 interventional studies indexed under Rectal Neoplasms.

Browse Rectal Neoplasms studies →

Lead sponsor

Beijing Friendship Hospital is the lead sponsor of 217 studies on the registry; 94 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 75 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Age 18-75 years.
  2. performance status score 0-2.
  3. Rectal adenocarcinoma confirmed by colonoscopic pathology, with pMMR or MSS.
  4. Imaging studies confirm no distant or lateral lymph node metastasis; MRI staging is II/III (excluding T4b, N1c, N2) and any positive lymph nodes (if present) are confined within the mesorectum.
  5. MRI shows the distal margin of the tumor is ≤10 cm from the anal verge, and the mesorectal fascia (MRF) is negative.
  6. The longest diameter of the rectal cancer lesion is ≥10 mm on baseline CT or MRI (meeting the definition of a "" per 1.1 criteria).
  7. Willing and able to comply with the study procedures.
  8. Consent to the use of tissue and blood samples by the investigator for medical research purposes.
  9. No prior history of radiotherapy or immunotherapy.
  10. No history of immune system diseases (e.g., systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic vasculitis, scleroderma, pemphigus, dermatomyositis, mixed connective tissue disease, hemolytic anemia, ulcerative colitis, infection, etc.).
  11. No history of endocrine system diseases (e.g., hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, thyroid nodules, thyroiditis, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, other specific types of diabetes, Cushing's syndrome, primary aldosteronism, pheochromocytoma, adrenal insufficiency, pituitary adenoma, anterior pituitary hypofunction, acromegaly, gigantism, polycystic ovary syndrome, precocious puberty, hypogonadism, hyperparathyroidism, hypoparathyroidism, etc.).
  12. No severe cardiac, pulmonary, hepatic, or renal dysfunction.
  13. No jaundice or gastrointestinal obstruction.
  14. No concurrent acute infection.
  15. Subjects must undergo all required baseline laboratory assessments, and results must be obtained within 1 week before enrollment. Laboratory values must meet the following criteria (per 5.0):

    1. White blood cell count ≥2000/μL.
    2. ≥1500/μL.
    3. count ≥100×10³/μL.
    4. ≥9.0 g/dL.
    5. Creatinine: serum creatinine ≤1.5 × (ULN) or >50 mL/min (calculated using the Cockcroft-Gault formula).
    6. Creatinine clearance for females = [140 - age (years)] × weight (kg) × 0.85 ÷ [72 × serum creatinine (mg/dL)].
    7. Creatinine clearance for males = [140 - age (years)] × weight (kg) × 1.00 ÷ [72 × serum creatinine (mg/dL)].
    8. (AST) ≤3 × ULN, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ≤3 × ULN, total ≤1.5 × ULN.
  16. No psychiatric/psychological disorders affecting social functioning.
  17. Women of must have a negative serum pregnancy test (blood HCG) within 1 week before enrollment.
  18. Women of childbearing potential and men who are sexually active with women of childbearing potential must agree to use appropriate methods.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Multifocal cancer, or concomitant other malignant tumors.
  2. Received any anti-tumor therapy for other malignant tumors within the past 5 years.
  3. Underwent major surgery recently (within 6 months).
  4. Presence of multiple factors affecting oral drug absorption (e.g., inability to swallow, nausea, vomiting, chronic diarrhea, intestinal obstruction, etc.).
  5. Any uncontrolled, severe comorbid diseases.
  6. Allergy to any component of the study medication.
  7. less than 5 years for any reason.
  8. Planning to undergo or previously underwent organ/bone marrow transplantation.
  9. Received agents or therapy aimed at suppressing immune responses within 1 month before enrollment.
  10. For patients with a history of central nervous system diseases, the investigator will determine whether their current condition allows them to provide or comply with the study procedures, and subsequently decide whether they can be enrolled.
  11. Other diseases or conditions that may prevent completion of the study treatment (e.g., alcoholism, drug addiction, etc.).
  12. Pregnant or lactating women.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(20)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

ECOG performance status

A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.

Metastases

Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.

Measurable disease

The amount of disease can be tracked with a defined measurement, so the study can see whether it shrinks or grows. It might be a tumour measured on a scan or, in some blood cancers such as myeloma, a marker measured in blood or urine.

The criteria or the study team say which measurement counts — having no tumour visible on a scan does not by itself rule you out.

RECIST

The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.

“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.

Autoimmune disease

A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.

Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

CTCAE grade

The US National Cancer Institute’s scale of how severe an adverse event is — any unwanted medical event during a study, such as a symptom, an illness or an abnormal test result, whether or not a treatment caused it. Whether it did is judged separately.

1
Mild.
2
Moderate.
3
Severe.
4
Life-threatening.
5
Death due to the event.

“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.

Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)

The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.

It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

Hemoglobin (Hb)

The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

Creatinine clearance (CrCl)

How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

Bilirubin

A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.

Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Life expectancy

The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
19 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Short-course radiotherapy plus chemo-immunotherapy

    Combination Product: Short-Course Radiotherapy Combined with Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy

Interventions

  • Combination productShort-Course Radiotherapy Combined with Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy

    ● Radiotherapy: Total dose of 25 Gy delivered in 5 fractions, 5 Gy per fraction, over a total course of 5 days (Target area: Only the gross rectal tumor and radiologically suspected metastatic positive lymph nodes, without irradiation of additional lymphatic drainage areas). * Qibei'an (Iparolizumab-tovorilimab Injection): 5 mg/kg intravenous drip, administered once 2 days after radiotherapy completion. * Camrelizumab: 200 mg intravenous drip, administered sequentially 3 times after Qibei'an, each in combination with XELOX chemotherapy. * XELOX Chemotherapy: Oxaliplatin 130 mg/m2 intravenous drip, Day 1; Capecitabine 1000 mg/m2 orally twice daily, Day 1 to Day 14.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Complete response rate

    Including both clinical and pathological complete response

    Time frame: Approximately 4 months after treatment starts

07

Study locations

1 site
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Yang Y, Pang K, Lin G, Liu X, Gao J, Zhou J, Xu L, Gao Z, Wu Y, Li A, Han J, Wu G, Wang X, Li F, Ye Y, Zhang J, Chen G, Wang H, Kong Y, Wu A, Xiao Y, Yao H, Zhang Z. Neoadjuvant chemoradiation with or without PD-1 blockade in locally advanced rectal cancer: a randomized phase 2 trial. Nat Med. 2025 Feb;31(2):449-456. doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-03360-5. Epub 2025 Jan 6. PubMed 39762418 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Start is estimated for Mar 2026; primary completion for Dec 2027, 21 months later.

Of 227 non-industry phase 2 interventional studies under Rectal Neoplasms, half reached primary completion within 46 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 32 and three quarters within 80. This study's planned 21 months is below that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 241 studies reached it within 46 months; a quarter within 31 and three quarters within 75.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Feb 2, 2026
First posted
Feb 9, 2026
StartEst.
Mar 1, 2026
Primary completionEst.
Dec 31, 2027
CompletionEst.
Feb 28, 2033
Last update
Feb 11, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 11, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07397442
Responsible party
Yingchi Yang (Professor, Beijing Friendship Hospital) — Principal investigator
First posted
Feb 9, 2026
Start date
Mar 1, 2026 (estimated)
Primary completion
Dec 31, 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Feb 28, 2033 (estimated)
Last update
Feb 11, 2026

Study contacts

Yingchi Yang, M.D.
Contact
yangyingchi@ccmu.edu.cn
+86 15810152032
Kai Pang, M.D.
Contact
pk2wys@foxmail.com
+86 18811792819

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Feb 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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