Colorectal cancer: management

The last decade has seen a dramatic change in the management of colorectal cancer. This has been delivered through more thorough and informed preoperative assessment, widespread use of multimodal treatments, including neoadjuvant therapy, and the introduction of minimally invasive procedures and improvement in rectal cancer surgery. This contribution discusses current issues in the management of cancer of the colon and rectum. General principles can be applied to both sites, but rectal cancer is given particular attention because it has seen greater developments in surgery and neoadjuvant treatment.