Carcinoma of the anal canal

A 20-year retrospective study of all anal canal carcinomas in the city of Malmö has been performed. The series consists of 29 patients, 23 women and 6 men, with a mean age of 66 years. Eight patients had non-keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma, 7 had keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma, 12 had basaloid squamous cell carcinoma, and 2 patients had mucoepidermoid carcinoma. Two of four patients operated on for curative purposes with local excision survived 5 years, as did seven of nine patients operated on curatively with abdominoperineal resection. In discussing the results, an overview of the literature is presented. It is concluded that adjuvant combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy appears to result in a higher survival rate for patients with tumours growing at or above the dentate line.