Familial adenomatous polyposis is a generalized growth disorder. It manifests itself in a catastrophic way with the inevitable development of colorectal cancer if left untreated. The aim of clinical management should be to detect this disease at its earliest possible stage by treatment of the family as a unit and identification of those at risk with appropriate screening. Early surgical intervention with, most commonly, colectomy with ileorectal anastomosis or, in more advanced cases, with colectomy, rectal mucosectomy and ileoanal pouch procedure is appropriate. Following colorectal cancer the major risks of death from this disease include upper gastrointestinal cancer, desmoid tumour and a number of other malignancies throughout the body. The exact magnitude of the risk of malignant degeneration of these extracolonic manifestations is as yet uncertain. Surveillance is required particularly for upper gastrointestinal adenomas, as there is a significant risk for the development of duodenal carcinoma and it is obvious that prophylactic colectomy alone does not cure this disease predictably. The role of a familial polyposis registry in managing these patients is important not only in maintaining compliance with surveillance and therefore early detection of the disease but also in educating the family members and gaining long-term follow-up data on these cases to more accurately define the risk of death from extracolonic malignancy.