Five-year survival was 70.6 percent in patients with no lymph node involvement, 68.2 percent in patients with pararectal lymph nodes N+, 25 percent in patients with involvement of intermediate lymph nodes, and 30 percent in patients with involvement of lumboaortic lymph nodes. In no case was there involvement of the hypogastric lymph nodes. On the basis of our experience and from results in the literature, we consider an upward extended lymphadenectomy with high ligation of the inferior mesenteric artery is warranted since it enables the tumor to be staged accurately and may lead to survival even in cases of advanced lymph node involvement.

LE for rectal carcinoma might only be successfully performed in selected patients with correct preoperative staging. In the LE cases reported five-year overall survival, local recurrence, and in-hospital mortality were similar to APR and SSR, while there was a statistically significant difference following LE in terms of specific morbidity.

Metastatic resection associated with adjuvant therapy may improve overall survival and, in some instances, can provide long-term survival, whatever site and numbers of metastasis. In our series, reiterative surgery was more significatively efficient in improving survival than single-time surgery.

The method used to identify the SN using vital dye proved to be easy to use both in vivo and ex vivo and allowed to identify the SN in all cases. The preliminary results indicate that there is a risk of false negative findings and therefore further studies are required to improve the sensitivity and the specificity of the technique and to evaluate the role of SN mapping in colorectal cancer management.

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