A strategy called Watch & Wait (W&W) has increasingly been used, including at the Champalimaud Foundation, to avoid surgery and its associated complications, in a selected group of patients  whose tumours become undetectable after chemoradiotherapy. In terms of the local tumour control, it has been shown to be as safe to operate them later – if ever their tumour gives any sign of coming back – as to operate them immediately after chemoradiotherapy treatment.