Rising detection rate of symptomatic Dukes' A colorectal cancers.

All 197 patients admitted to the Bristol Royal Infirmary during the 16 year period 1970-1985, and diagnosed as having Dukes' A colorectal cancers, were studied. The numbers diagnosed per year by 1985 were 20, compared with 9.4 per year for the period 1970-1979. This represented an increase in the percentage of Dukes' A cancers of all the colorectal cancers diagnosed from 8.3 to 15 per cent. The increase was largely due to better quality double contrast barium enemas and increased use of flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy. The operative mortality dropped from 17 to 3 per cent in the last 6 year period. The recurrence rate was 9.6 per cent of which 1 per cent were locally resected and crude 5 year survival was 90.4 per cent up to 1981.