The risk of developing rectal cancer after colectomy and ileorectal anastomosis in Danish patients with polyposis coli

Fifty-eight Danish polyposis patients had been treated with colectomy and ileorectal anastomosis by the end of 1982. Three of these patients developed rectal cancer despite regular proctoscopic control, but one was probably an overlooked synchronous cancer. The cumulative risk at five and ten years after operation (actuarial method) was 3.5 and 13.3 per cent (95 per cent confidence limits 0–10.3 and 0–70.3 per cent, respectively), which seem to be acceptably low figures. This study supports the assumption that colectomy and ileorectal anastomosis is still the operation of choice in polyposis patients without rectal cancer.