&NA;To determine the perioperative mortality and morbidity and the long‐term prognosis of patients undergoing extended pelvic resections for localized advanced primary adenocarcinoma of the rectum, the authors reviewed their experience with 65 patients operated on between 1956 and 1984. Local invasion without distant metastasis was present in all patients at operation anden blocresection of all involved organs was performed with intent of cure. Average age at operation was 61 years; 15 (23 percent) were men and 50 (77 percent) were women. Operations included abdominoperineal resection in 37 patients (57 percent), low anterior resection in 20 patients (31 percent), and Hartmann procedure in 8 patients (12 percent). Additionally, 34 of 42 women (81 percent) with intact uteri underwenten blochysterectomy, 37 of 48 women (77 percent) with intact ovaries had oophorectomy, and 25 of 50 women (50 percent) had partial vaginal resection. Seventeen of the 65 patients (26 percent) had a cystectomy, and 2 patients had a portion of small intestine resected in continuity with their tumor. Pathologic examination revealed lymph node involvement in 29 patients (45 percent) and histologic confirmation of adjacent organ extension in 37 patients (57 percent). There were no perioperative deaths, the average survival was 5.7 years, and 25 patients (38 percent) were alive after a mean follow‐up period of 9.3 years. Overall five‐year survival was 52 percent. Forty patients died during the follow‐up period, with 26 (65 percent) of the deaths attributable to either recurrent carcinoma (25 patients) or a new primary lesion (1 patient). The cumulative probability of tumor recurrence at five years was 39 percent.