COLORECTAL-CANCER - A RATIONAL FOLLOW-UP PROGRAM ADAPTED TO PATIENTS INDIVIDUAL RISK OF RECURRENCE

Follow-up programs in patients with colorectal cancer have been critic ized concerning their efficacy. Uniform programs for all patients as p ractised during the last decade did neither influence survival nor did they improve the number of secondary tumor resection for cure. Theref ore we developed a follow-up program that considers patient's healthin ess, status of resection in primary operative therapy and the risk of tumor recurrence depending on postoperative tumor staging. Because of these considerations we divided patients into three groups: Patients w ith low risk, high risk and patients treated with palliative aspects. Thus costs of follow-up programs could be reduced to more than 50%.