Technical considerations in the surgical treatment of colon and rectal cancer

Surgery is the primary mode of therapy for colorectal cancer. Advances beyond exteriorization began to appear at the end of the nineteenth century. The antibiotic era brought on more advances. Dogma abounds with respect to the technical aspects of surgery for colon and rectal cancer and few randomized, prospective trials have been done to evaluate the importance of these techniques. Firmly established are the techniques of resection of lymphatic drainage of tumors, en bloc resection of invaded structures, and obtaining at least 2 cm margins of rectal cancers. Radical lymph node dissection, luminal ligation, oophorectomy, and the "No-Touch Technique" are discussed. Despite the paucity of irrefutable scientific data to support many of the described surgical techniques, differences in outcome between surgeons suggest that technique is important. There is great need for randomized, prospective trials to evaluate the multitude of techniques described for the surgical treatment of colorectal cancer.