[Reoperations in cancer surgery (author's transl)].

Early detection of local recurrences and metastases is the most important condition for the success of reoperation in cancer surgery. A strict long-term follow-up, with standardized documentation, of patients operated on for malignancies is therefore necessary. While reoperations in cancer of the esophagus, the stomach or the lung are not very effective, surgery for recurrent carcinoma of the female breast, the colon and the rectum is more successful. The results of reoperation improve with increasing lapse of time since initial surgery, if radical resection of the local recurrences and the solitary metastases is possible. Treatment by an interdisciplinary team is considered to be the best.