[Malignant tumors of the colon: statistical and clinical aspects (author's transl)]

Between 1961 and 1974 at the University Hospital Surgical Clinic at Innsbruck, 991 cases of malignant tumors of the colon have been treated. Statistically a significant increase is proved in the number of these patients above the age of fifty in the Tyrolean population during this period. On the other hand the percentage of colon-tumors is decreasing with the age in patients younger than fifty. 412 out of these 991 cases could be analysed very carefully. The malignant tumors have been studied, among other respects, in relation to the localisation in the particular part of the colon, the frequency in the different ages and sexes. Specially the symptoms due to the particular localisation of the tumor are stressed. It is also noticed that the long case history, mainly because of the patients' own negligence, plays a decisive part in the unsatisfactoring number of cured. Some measures are mentioned, which with the so far got knowledge and science can improve the final therapeutic results.