The purpose of this perspective study was to define the role of laparoscopic surgery in the treatment of colorectal carcinoma. One hundred colorectal cancer patients were submitted to surgical treatment between 1993 and 1996. Fifty patients were operated on by videolaparoscopy, the other 50 were operated on according to the standard "open" technique. The two groups had similar demographic (age, gender), pathological (site, stage), and surgical (type and extent of resection) data. Early and late results, benefits and drawbacks of the minimally invasive technique are compared to those of standard open surgery. No intra-operative complications and no operative mortality occurred in the two groups. Early results (complications within 30 days from surgery) were: 1 pneumonia, 3 wound sepsis, and 3 fistulas (one required a reoperation) in the laparoscopic group; 2 wound sepsis and 5 fistulas (spontaneously recovered) in the open group. Late complications occurred in the laparoscopic group only: 1 bowel bridle occlusion 2 months after surgery (that required a reoperation), and 2 stenoses of the colorectal Knight-Griffen anastomosis, successfully treated by dilatation. Concerning the oncologic results, data were calculated on 40 laparoscopic and 43 open curative resections (stage I, II and III): 20% (8/40) of the laparoscopic and 23% (10/43) of the open group patients resulted in neoplastic progression. The neoplastic recurrences were single site (liver or regional) in 3 laparoscopic and in 5 open patients; multiple sites of relapse were observed in 5 laparoscopic (liver, peritoneum and 1 trocar site) and in 5 open (liver, peritoneum and 1 scar) cases. Five-year disease-free survival rates (Kaplan-Meier method) were similar in the two groups: 73.2% in the laparoscopic and 70.1% in the open. Laparoscopic surgery seems to be a feasible and effective treatment of colorectal cancer and, with the improvement of technology and surgeon skill, it will represent an excellent alternative to the more diffuse and consolidated open surgery technique.