[Cancer of the anus. Current role of surgery]

70 cases of carcinoma of the anus are described in a retrospective study. All patients had been operated, since surgical treatment was regarded as the method of choice at that time. Our work therefore consists in assessing the role of surgery in the treatment of such carcinomas. In the initial forms, extended sphincter saving exeresis allowed excellent results (100% survival over a 1- to 10-year follow-up). In more advanced lesions, treated with abdominoperineal resection, the survival rate was 50% after 5 years. The same figure was obtained in case of extension to the female genital organs (the invasion of which is not a pejorative sign), while the prognosis was considerably worsened for the patients who had had lymph node resection due to invasion of inguinal nodes (20% survived after 5 years). Local surgical exeresis currently is as valuable as radiation therapy, but the latter is clearly indicated for advanced carcinomas, for which mutilating surgery has not demonstrated its superiority.