The extended lymphadenectomies in the treatment of digestive tract carcinomas (II). Colon and rectum

Local recurrence of rectal cancer is basically related to one of the following reasons: the disruption of the primary tumor at surgery, inadequate or insufficient local or ganglionar excision, or the implantation of viable tumor cells whether into the tumor bed or into the anastomosis. Surgery of the recurrence is marked with high rate of unresectable tumors and quite poor outcome, even though the tumor is resectable. Thus, an important effort must be addressed to the search for resources aimed at decreasing the recurrence after original operation.