[Rectal cancer margin]

Treatment of rectal cancer has dramatically improved over the last twenty years. During previous years surgeons and pathologists have focused mainly on distal longitudinal margin as the main parameter for anal conservation. New knowledge on the prognostic role of circumferential margin and its influence on locoregional recurrence rate and patients' survival has led to a more standardized surgery and the definition of the total mesorectal excision concept. As a consequence the rates of positive circumferential margins and locoregional recurrence have decreased in population studies as well as in prospective randomized trials.