[Te place of radiotherapy in the treatment of local recurrences of rectal cancer].

A retrospective study was conducted on 67 patients irradiated between 1976 and 1983 at the Medical Radiologic Institute of Tübingen for local recurrences of primarily operated carcinomas of the rectum. Generally, a total dose of 50 to 60 Gy was applied partially in form of a rotational therapy with individual doses of 2 Gy each. The irradiation was well tolerated by most of the patients. The troubles which were mostly severe and progressive before radiotherapy could be relieved by the irradiations in 91% of the patients. This palliative effect lasted for twelve months on an average. The prognosis quoad vitam is unfavorable with a median survival time of 21 months and a three-year survival rate of 15%. A clear dependence on the dose was not found for any of these parameters. Our own results are compared to those communicated by other authors. It is shown that better results can only be achieved by re-operation performed in sano.