BACKGROUND: Identification and staging of rectal cancer are mainly based on the difference in signal intensity (SI) between the tumor and normal structures of the intestinal wall on T2-weighted imaging. However, differentiating stage pT0-T1 from pT2 rectal tumors is difficult using routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences. PURPOSE: To summarize and explore whether MRI findings from routine imaging can help differentiate pT0-T1 from pT2 rectal tumors. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 110 patients with pT0-T2 rectal cancer underwent preoperative pelvic MRI examinations and tumor resection without preoperative chemoradiotherapy. MRI findings of rectal lesions (including tumor location, shape, longitudinal length, maximum cross-section, submucosal high intensity [SHI], extramural fibrotic scarring, wall shrinkage, lesion-to-wall signal intensity ratio, and presence of lymph node with short axis over 3 mm) and clinical characteristics were analyzed by univariate and multivariate analyses to screen the independent factors associated with pathological results. RESULTS: Of all the lesions, 32 tumors were proved to be pT0-T1 and 78 tumors were pT2. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that tumor shape (odds ratio [OR] = 24.607, CONCLUSION: The imaging features obtained from the routine MRI sequence showed potential value for differentiating pT0-T1 from pT2 rectal tumors.