[Rectal neoplasms: the current state of surgical treatment]

The number of patients with rectal cancer ist increasing steadily in the BRD. Even if diagnosis of early stages of rectal cancer is not too difficult, the fatal diagnostic delay is 7-8 months on the average. After operative methods have been subtilized and radicalized only preventive medical examinations and early public instruction may improve the prognosis of the patients concerned. Additional treatment with cytostatical agents seems to be promising. If preventive medical care makes it possible to detect rectal cancer in its early stages, the same operative results can be obtained by the meanwhile developed continence-preserving methods as by the hitherto carried out widespread and continence-sacrificing rectal resection as our own experiences prove.