How would you manage a patient who presented with synchronous squamous cell carcinoma of the anus (cT2N0) and adenocarcinoma of the rectum (cT3N0) at 7cm from the anal verge?

There is clearly no "correct" answer to questions such as these. However, a reasonable approach would be to treat as one would treat an anal cancer with pelvic RT with 5-FU and mitomycin C and then follow with a low anterior resection for the rectal cancer. If this were a small T2 cancer it would be...