IT IS SAID that surgeons early recognized that epithelioma of the anus was "a peculiarly resistant type of tumor."1 There is little evidence to show that the epidermoid carcinomas which arise in the anal canal or the perianal skin are different in their intrinsic characteristics from similar lesions occurring elsewhere. Yet, it is true that statistical studies presented up to this time indicate that treatment of this rare neoplasm has not been brilliantly successful. This is most apparent when considering that group of patients with small, locally favorable lesions that are sometimes presented to the surgeon. Good results have not followed uniformly any of the present forms of treatment of the far-advanced, widely disseminated lesion.
Case 14 (No. 518383).
—A 64-year-old housewife had had for four months constipation and anal pain upon sitting down. For these symptoms she had a hemorrhoidectomy. Her pain remained after the operation, and several