Fig. 1

Kaplan–Meier curves of patients with pathological stage N2 rectal cancer treated with primary adjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy (A-CRT) or primary adjuvant chemotherapy (A-CT). a The 3-year distant metastasis-free survival rates are 67.5% in the A-CRT group and 86.6% in the A-CT group (p = 0.074). b The 3-year locoregional recurrence-free survival rates are 93.7% in the A-CRT group and 97.4% in the A-CT group (p = 0.629). c The 3-year disease-free survival rates are 66.7% in the A-CRT group and 83.9% in the A-CT group (p = 0.153). d The overall survival rates are 81.8% in the A-CRT group and 90.8% in the A-CT group (p = 0.378)