Recurrence of carcinoma of the colon and rectum at the anastomotic suture line.

A total of 1,315 patients were treated by potentially curative resection for a single primary malignant tumor of the large intestine. Thirty-five or 2.7 per cent of the patients subsequently presented with a recurrent tumor at the site of the anastomosis. Fourteen of these patients were treated by further operation with curative intention, resulting in a median cancer-specific survival time of 41 months. The prognosis after resection of a recurrence of the tumor at the suture line was significantly better, p=0.001, than for patients in whom no further resection or palliative operation only was performed. None of the latter has survived for more than 30 months after confirmation of the recurrence, with a median survival time of 8.5 months.