Objective The aim: To evaluate the early and late results of treatment of rectal cancer patients after special treatment methods with a view to indentifying optimal method of treatment in correlation with the stage of the disease. Patients and methods Materials and methods: The study is based on the results of observation of 779 patients with stage II, III and IV rectal cancer (RC) who were divided into groups according to the treatment (surgery, surgery + chemotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery + chemotherapy + radiation therapy, radiation therapy + surgery, radiation therapy). Results Results: According to the results obtained, the overall survival of patients correlates with the stage of rectal cancer: we see the highest percentage of patients' survival in stage II and, accordingly, the lowest - in stage IV in each of the studied time intervals. Conclusion Conclusions: The use of combined and integrated treatment in patients with stages II and stage III and the use of chemotherapy in stage IV RC gives a higher rate of cumulative survival of patients at each of the studied intervals.