Objective To explore the intervention effect on colorectal cancer operation by neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in multi-disciplinary team. Methods To analyze retrospectively the data of patients diagnosed definitely as colorectal cancer in the West China Hospital of Sichuan University from July 2007 to December 2007, and the planned and actual operative strategy were compared between MDT group and non-MDT group. Results According to the inclusion criteria, 251 colorectal cancer patients were included which had 183 rectal cancer and 68 colon cancer. The baseline between MDT group and non-MDT group was equal, and there was no difference of planned operative strategy between two groups. For patients planned undergoing standard ano-saving radical procedure, the ratio of actual procedure same to the planned and the ratio of radical procedure changed to expansive ano-saving radical procedure showed no significant differences between MDT group and non-MDT group (Pgt;0.05), whereas the difference of the ratio of radical procedure changed to local radical procedure between two groups was statistically significant (Plt;0.01). And the constituent ratio of actual procedure between two groups for patients which planned accepted non-ano-saving procedure didn’t have any significant difference (Pgt;0.05). For the cancer focus, the relief differences of complete remission and partial remission were statistically significant between two groups (P＜0.01), but the difference of the constituent ratio of T staging change was not statistically significant (Pgt;0.05). Conclusion The value of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy should not be limited to decrease the stage of cancer, and it is important to pay more attention to the high quality of combined therapy. Further research should be carried out to find the contribution of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy to mini-invasive surgery.