Results of curative surgery for colorectal cancer

It is sometimes suggested that the results achieved by curative surgery for colorectal cancer have reached their peak. This is an over simplification. It may be, though this is not proven, that the principles of curative surgery have reached their limits, but the application of those principles is not uniform, leaving room for improvements in all the outcome parameters discussed. It may also yet be shown that the limits of 'conventional' radical surgery can be extended with advantage.