Laparoscopic versus open surgery for colorectal cancer.

There are three basic roles of laparoscopic surgery for patients with colorectal cancer. First, although infrequently needed prior to therapy, diagnostic or staging laparoscopy may be valuable in certain colorectal cancer patients. Second, the laparoscopic approach may offer several attractive features for the palliative management of patients with incurable colorectal cancer. Finally, although this issue is the most controversial, there are theoretic but unproved advantages of using laparoscopic techniques for curative colorectal cancer therapy. The concerted efforts of surgical oncologists and their colleagues must prove this theory in well constructed trials.