[Epidemiology of colorectal tumors with special reference to the status in East Germany]

Colorectal cancers are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the GDR and affect almost 3% of the population by age 75. The age-standardized incidence rate has increased and this probably reflects a true rise in the frequency of carcinomas of these sites. At the beginning of the treatment only 42% were in a sufficiently localized stage of the disease so that curative radical surgery might be attempted. Such operations are widely decentralized in the GDR. Only 15% of all patients were alive 5 after treatment was initiated.