Colon Cancer: Assessment and Monitoring

Intuitively, it is assumed that by monitoring patients it is possible to detect resectable asymptomatic relapses. This curative post-operative follow-up of colorectal cancer surgery remains poorly validated due to the small number of published randomised studies and in particular their lack of statistical power. However, the most recent studies suggest that, in spite of their limitations, an increase in survival is seen with clinical follow-up combined with hepatic and pulmonary imaging and possibly analysis of ACE levels. Intraluminal relapses and metachronous tumours are rare: it is the detection of localised relapses and metastases that will enable improvements in survival.