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Between 1980 and 1987, 25 patients with cancer of the middle or lower rectum were treated with preoperative radiotherapy (35 Gy over 3 weeks) followed, a few weeks later, by "tumorectomy". During surgery, a guiding tube was positioned on the tumoral bed for a localized overdose of curietherapy. The superimpression was 20 Gy for submucosal lesions (7 patients) and 25 Gy for lesions that had invaded the muscle coat (8 cases) or reached the serous coat (10 cases). During a mean follow-up period of 40.5 months, there were 5 recurrences and they all appeared before 18 months had elapsed since the end of treatment. Two of these 5 patients are alive and without metastasis 1 year after a secondary abdominoperineal rectal amputation. The 20 patients who showed no recurrence have normal sphincter function and 19 of them are now alive without evidence of malignancy. In cancer of the middle or lower rectum this conservative approach seems to be suitable for patients who cannot benefit from radical surgery or refuse abdominoperineal rectal amputation.