[Surgery of colon and rectal cancer]

Surgery of colorectal cancer is also surgery of lymph node compartments and tissue planes. It is essential in such surgery to avoid tumor dissemination and inoculation while observing safety margins. If surgical procedures are strictly standardized according to the rules of surgical oncology R0-resection will yield extraordinarily favourable results not only for stage I but also for stages II and III tumors. There are distinct differences between colon and rectal carcinoma in stage II disease, indicating a different biologic behaviour of these tumors. The possibility of further improvement of the good results of R0-resection by adjuvant therapy should be addressed in future studies.