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Twenty-five patients with invasive adenocarcinoma of the rectum were treated by preoperative external irradiation (35 Gy), local excision, and peroperative placement of a plastic tube loop in the tumor bed for perioperative brachytherapy (20 or 25 Gy). Patients treated were too frail for radical resection (14 patients) or had refused a permanent colostomy (11 patients). With a mean follow-up of 40.5 months, there have been 5 patients with local relapse, 3 of whom had salvage abdominoperineal resections: 2 have no evidence of disease and 1 has developed distant metastatic disease. The 20 patients with local control have normally functioning sphincters; 1 has developed distant metastatic disease. This combined approach was designed to expand the curative role of local resection in carcinoma of the rectum. The surgical techniques are thoroughly described and the potential role and indications of this approach are discussed.

Between 1980 and 1987, 25 patients with rectal cancer were treated with a combination of preoperative external irradiation of 35 Gy in 15 fractions over 3 weeks which was followed, 6 to 8 weeks later, by a tumorectomy and peroperative placement of a plastic tube loop for post-operative interstitial therapy by iridium-192. This boost dose was 20 Gy (Paris System) for submucosal lesions (seven patients) and 25 Gy for intramural (eight patients) and extramural (ten patients) lesions. With a mean follow-up of 40.5 months, there have been five local recurrences, the latest occurring 16 months post-tumorectomy. Two of these five patients are alive and disease-free 1 year post salvage abdominoperineal resection. The 20 patients with local control have preserved a full functional sphincter and 19 of them are disease-free; there were few complications. This sphincter preserving combined approach seems promising for patients with tumors of the middle and lower rectum who cannot undergo major surgery and for selected patients who refuse abdominoperineal resection.