Editorial: advances in proctology and colorectal surgery

Proctology and colorectal surgery for benign disorders and neoplasia represent a broad field of general surgery. Their relevance is well known, on the one hand because of the still extremely high frequency in Western countries of colon-rectal cancer (currently estimated as the third most frequent cancer in the world), and on the other hand because of the serious impact on the quality of life (QoL) of patients suffering from benign, inflammatory, and functional diseases of the lower gastrointestinal tract. This Research Topic of Frontiers in Surgery, composed by forty-five original articles on colorectal surgery and proctology addresses several topics including non-surgical solutions, diagnostic aspects, translational research, and specific scenarios.