Local treatment (electrocoagulation) for carcinoma of the rectum in the elderly

For more than 70 years, surgical excision with permanent colostomy has been the most common operation for adenocarcinoma of the rectum. Local treatment has been advocated by some surgeons, but most prefer radical surgery. Abdominoperitoneal resection often diminishes the risk of local recurrence, but mortality and morbidity rates are very high, especially in the elderly. Although local treatment for rectal cancer remains controversial, the author believes that the elderly constitute a separate category of patients because their mortality and morbidity rates are high and because they usually are unable to care for a colostomy. Local treatment seems a much more desirable form of therapy. A series of 6 elderly patients (average age, 77) were treated by local electrocoagulation followed by radiation therapy, for biopsy-proven adenocarcinoma of the rectum; one died after nine months from liver metastases (present at the time of diagnosis), and one had to undergo a colostomy after 19 months. For the 4 remaining patients, follow-up has ranged from three years to nine months. To date there has been no recurrence, no evidence of metastases, and no mortality or morbidity. In the author's opinion, the results of electrocoagulation-radiation treatment of small rectal adenocarcinomas are superior to the results of radical surgery in elderly patients.