Multivisceral resections in colorectal cancer.

From 1969 to 1983 a total of 1918 patients with colorectal cancer were treated by curative resection. One hundred twenty one patients in this group had multivisceral organ involvement, necessitating extended multivisceral radical resection. Tumor infiltration was proven histologically in 55 percent, while 45 percent had inflammatory adherence to the attached organ only. Postoperative mortality was 12 percent. Dukes' A and B stages were present in 57 percent. The five-year survival rate (postoperative mortality included) was 54 percent for patients with inflammatory adherence, 49 percent for patients with tumor infiltration resected en bloc without tumor tears of rupture, and 17 percent when the surgeon inadvertently had torn or cut into tumor tissue during resection.