Management of recurrent rectal cancer

In an effort to treat the difficult problem of recurrent rectal cancer more successfully, we embarked on an aggressive therapeutic course involving a combination of field irradiation, surgical debulking, and intraoperative radiation therapy. On the basis of our study of 24 patients treated with this regimen, we estimated the local effectiveness to be as high as 85%. Prolonged survival was achieved in 67% of our patients.