CONSERVATIVE SURGICAL MANAGEMENT FOR CERTAIN RECTAL ADENOMAS SHOWING MALIGNANT CHANGE

Polypoid lesions of the lower portion of the colon represent one of the most active frontiers in the advancing fight which clinical surgeons are waging against malignant disease. They are of especial interest and significance for three reasons: first, the relative frequency with which they occur; second, the close relationship they bear to carcinoma of the same region, and third. the relative ease with which, in the majority of cases, the diagnosis can be made and treatment rendered.

The attention and thought of many of the ablest proctologists and pathologists have been directed toward numerous controversial features of this problem, with the result that there is an accumulated reservoir of information and experience which is leading to increasing agreement on principles of diagnosis and treatment. Yet there is a distinct paucity in follow-up studies on groups of patients who have had their polyps removed. This is especially true of