[Colorectal cancers: surgical therapy]

Successful treatment of colorectal cancer is still founded on surgical resection. Therefore the indication for an operative treatment is generally given. During the last years surgical improvements were especially made in sphincter-saving procedures of the rectum. Although improvement in anaesthetic methods and perioperative care have reduced operative mortalities, the reports of the overall five-year survival rates are not very encouraging and essentially depend on the primary tumor staging. Unfortunately 10 to 25% of the potentially curable patients develop local recurrence within two years of operation.