Colorectal cancer

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to review the effectiveness of follow-up in patients with colorectal cancer submitted to curative treatment. A comprehensive follow-up involves rational initial management of the primary tumor, knowledge of prognostic factors, selection of the patient to be followed, determination of the time for follow-up, use of the most appropriate tests for early diagnosis of recurrence, and eventual curative treatment. The updated answers to all these questions are given through an extensive review of the world literature and confronted with the authors' experience of eight years of follow-up in a series of 170 colorectal cancer patients treated for cure. Although the future might be more promising, past world experience suggests only a few patients could be saved. It is concluded that there is no place for incomplete and disperse screening tests, and only comprehensive, intensive, and very well-coordinated follow-up programs should be undertaken if better results are hoped to be achieved.

How Uncommon are Isolated Lung Metastases in Colorectal Cancer? A Review from Database of 754 Patients Over 4 Years

“…20 But its utilization as a tool to detect recurrent disease in patients following curative resection of colorectal cancers has been well documented. [21][22][23][24] However, in this current series, only half of the patients with isolated lung metastases were found to have elevated CEA levels during follow-up after initial curative surgery. This was not surprising, as CEA levels were shown to be especially useful in the detection of recurrent disease in the liver with sensitivity of up to 80%, while CEA was much less reliable at predicting recurrent disease in other locations.…”

Preoperative Serum Alpha-<i>L</i>-Fucosidase Activity as a Prognostic Marker in Colorectal Cancer

“…Moreover, risk factors that had been previously associated with increased recurrence rates were also considered: sex, age, tumour size, tumour location, tumour differentiation, and preoperative serum CEA levels [27, 28, 29]. …”

Colorectal Follow-Up Planning Modified on the Basis of Our Personal Experience

“…Others [19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25] do not agree with this view and claim that the best results, albeit in a limited range, are obtained in follow-up patients and that recurrences can be sometimes successfully reoperated, especially in asymptomatic patients [3, 23, 26]. …”