Standard postoperative monitoring of patients after primary resection of colon and rectum cancer.

The goal of monitoring after primary treatment of any solid tumor, including colon and rectum carcinoma, is to help the patient. The general parameters include prevention of secondary tumors or precancers (because most patients with solid tumors are at greater risk than the general population for second tumors of the same histology), the cure of symptomatic or asymptomatic tumor recurrences, and the palliation of symptomatic tumor recurrences. Additional rationale for more stringent follow-up is somewhat dependent upon the venue of patient care, including the necessity for more frequent studies if the patient happens to be in a protocol in which disease-free survival and/or patterns of recurrence are being investigated. Keeping these parameters in mind, most prevalent follow-up plans remain empiric and probably are not justifiable, on the basis of either cost-effective analysis or real benefit to the patient.