Czech Republic is among the countries with the highest incidence of rectal cancer. The aim of the prospective study was to monitor the surgical treatment of patients with the diagnosis of rectal cancer. Certain aspects were examined: mainly the safety distance of the lower resection line during the operation of rectal cancer, the types of operations carried out, the amount of lymphatic nodes spotted in mesorectum and the possibility of laparoscopic utilization. In our study we focused on patients with rectal cancer who were operated within the three-year period (2000-2002) at the Department of Surgery at University Hospital of Ostrava. During this time there were 188 patients with rectal cancer treated. In the trial we shaved proved that in the direction from aboral margin of tumour the possibility of submucosal spread decreases in accordance with the literature. The submucosal spread of tumour occurs in 11.8% of cases. The spread of the tumour was not found at a distance of 5 cm below the bottom margin of tumour. In cases of microscopical positivity below the bottom margin of tumour there was a middle or low differentiated adenocarcinoma. The spread of well differentiated adenocarcinoma was not found. (Tab. 4, Fig. 5, Ref. 18.)