Carcinoma of the rectum at St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne

Public patients admitted to a public hospital with carcinoma of the rectum were older and had more advanced lesions than those generally reported. Elderly patients were often unfit for any definitive treatment. Only half of all patients had curative resections and half of these lives five years; survival was related to stage. Palliative resection proved safe and worth while. Late diagnosis of rectal cancer among the aged and the poor demands improvement in our standards of community health care.