A local sphincter-saving treatment of distal rectal cancer

For the last years less radical approaches to management of distal rectal cancers have been sought to decrease the morbidity of standard surgical therapy. The results in 34 patients selected for local conservative treatment are discussed, with an analysis of complications and recurrences in the follow up. The real play-off is not simply the extension of life, but also improvement in its quality, mainly in terms of sphincter functionality. New protocols, integrating local conservative surgery and neo adjuvant radio and chemo-therapy, can attain a future improvement of the results.