Early stage rectal cancer means tumor located intra-epithelial or invades into muscularis mucosae, or tumor invades through muscularis mucosae into sub-mucosa. Local treatments also have better results for precise patient selection.When compares with radical surgery, it provides minimally invasive、less morbidity、fast recovery and effective for low-risk T1 stage rectal cancer.In this article, we summarized the principles, indications of local treatments for eraly stage rectal cancer, and also compares the advantages and disadvantages of different methods, hoping to provide some help in clinical therapies.