[Carcinoma of the anus - clinical signs and symptoms, therapy and prognosis (author's transl)].

Case reports are given of 37 patients treated between 1964 and 1976 because of carcinoma of the anus, and clinical signs and symptoms, therapy and prognosis are discussed. Most of the patients were 50-70 years old, women being more often afficted then men. Often the carcinoma was misdiagnosed as a benign disease. Hemorrhage and pain were the presenting symptoms in most of the case. Therapy depends upon the localization and the stage of the tumor. Carcinoma localizad distally of the linea dentata were excised locally; infiltrating carcinomas received radiotherapy postoperatively. Abdominal amputation of the rectum was performed if the linea dentata or regional lymph-nodes were involved. Bilateral dissection of inguinal lymph-nodes was performed only if inguinal metastases were suspected. No patients surviving 5 years were observed in the group with lymph-node metastases. On the contrary all patients survived, if carcinoma was localized distally to the linea dentata and had been excised locally. Recurrent malignancy was found only in 3 of these cases. On the basis of these findings it can be concluded that local excision is the therapy of choice in selected cases.