Follow-up programs in patients with colorectal cancer have been criticized concerning their efficacy. Uniform programs for all patients as practised during the last decade did neither influence survival nor did they improve the number of secondary tumor resection for cure. Therefore we developed a follow-up program that stratifies according to patient s healthiness, residual tumor and the expected risk of tumor recurrence. Patients were divided into three categories: patients with low or high risk of tumor recurrence and patients treated for palliation. By such an approach the number of apparative examinations and the cost of a follow-up program could be theoretically reduced by more than 50%.