Identification of metastasis of lymph nodes is still a major challenge in the diagnosis and treatment of rectal cancer. Clinically

lymph node morphology is usually used to determine whether there is metastasis in lymph node

but this method is not accurate yet. At present

magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the main imaging method to predict lymph node metastasis of rectal cancer

and the quantitative analysis of routine MRI

functional MRI and radiomics can provide more morphological and essential information of lymph nodes

which is expected to improve the accuracy of judging whether there is metastasis of lymph nodes

contribute to better clinical diagnosis and treatment plan

and lay a foundation for the clinical transformation of image research. In this paper

the main progress of MRI in the evaluation of lymph node metastasis of rectal cancer were reviewed.