Surgeons at the Colorectal Center at the USC/Norris Cancer Hospital focus on matching the extent of surgery with the extent of disease, avoiding, whenever possible, colostomies and ileostomies.  Their goal is to achieve wide margins around tumors and to perform sophisticated reconstructive procedures that will maximize positive outcomes without compromising the ability to help restore intestinal continuity and function.

Colorectal Center surgeons are particularly interested in treating locally recurrent rectal cancer   As such, one procedure, called brachytherapy, has been developed as an advanced treatment where radioactive seeds or sources are placed directly at the site of the cancer, giving a high dose hit as opposed to more generalized external radiation.  However, since neither surgery, chemotherapy nor radiation is usually effective alone, the center takes a multimodality approach.