Abstract Background: Colorectal cancer is one of the most frequent causes of cancer-related death worldwide. An accurate preop-erative rectal cancer staging is crucial to the correct manage-ment of the disease. Despite great controversy around this issue, pelvic magnetic resonance is said to be the standard modality. Aim of Study: The aim of this study is to assess the role of MRI in detection and local staging of rectal cancer. Patients and Methods: 30 patients with rectal carcinoma were included with MRI and histopathological assessment of cancer staging to evaluate MRI accuracy. All patients received pre-operative neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Results: T3 staging with MRI, calculation of sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive value were 73.3%, 40%, 60% and 55% respectively. T4 staging with MRI, cal-culation of sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive value were 100%, 77%, 100% and 40% respectively. Conclusion: MRI has a good sensitivity for tumor staging and nodal staging.