[The pattern of recurrence of T3 rectum cancer]

Rectal carcinoma is one of the most common tumors of the GI-tract. At the time of initial treatment the majority of our patients had a stage T3 tumor. In order to contribute to the development of new guidelines for adjuvant therapies we analysed the patterns of recurrence in the patients operated with curative intention in our institution between 1981 and 1989. The pattern of recurrence shows that every fifth patient could benefit of a local measure to reduce local recurrence and that every second patient with positive nodal histopathology could benefit of a systemic adjuvant chemotherapy.