Rectal cancer is a common malignancy. success of tumor excision depends on accurate staging& appropriate surgical technique. Phased-array surface coil magnetic resonance imaging is used to determine which patients can be treated with surgery alone and which will require neoadjuvant therapy& proved useful in the relationship between tumor and the mesorectal fascia (the circumferential resection margin) at total mesorectal excision.preoperative evaluation of nodal status is still problematic& requires further studies.