[Local therapy principles in rectal carcinoma]

In the therapeutic algorithm for treatment of rectal cancer, primarily in the lower two-thirds of the rectum, local excision currently plays a limited role, but clearly adheres to diagnostic, oncologic, and technical principles. This should be considered particularly against the background that aspects of maintaining function and the associated positive effects on quality of life, based on expanding knowledge of the complications of radical interventions and their ramifications, have gained in importance. The following addresses the oncologic-histologic, clinical-diagnostic, and technical principles of local excision as well as the results for patients treated according to the devised diagnostic/therapeutic algorithm and included in the Erlanger Register of Colorectal Cancer (ERCRC).