Multivisceral resection has been accepted as treatment for patients with locally advanced colorectal cancer. Nodal status has recently been claimed to be the most important predictor of survival in patients with such disease, with no survival after 2 years for patients with lymph node metastasis. A retrospective analysis was carried out of the prognostic significance of different tumour characteristics, and whether a more limited palliative resection is warranted in patients with positive lymph nodes. Of 1346 patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma operated on between 1987 and 1991, all those with a tumour staged as T4N0M0 or T4N1M0 (94 patients) were selected. From the remainder, 195 patients with stage T3N0M0 and T3N1M0 lesions were randomly selected as a control group. Overall survival was assessed at the beginning of 1993. The most important predictors of survival were lymph node status and involvement of the resection margins of the tumour. Overall survival in patients with T4 tumours who underwent radical resection was not significantly different from that in those with T3 tumours, even in N1 stages. Extended resection did not induce unacceptable morbidity or mortality. Surgery for locally advanced colorectal adenocarcinoma should result in tumour-free margins, and should therefore include multivisceral resection, even in patients with lymph node metastasis.