Temporal trend analysis for incident cases (n = 60,837) and deaths (n = 28,936) for colorectal cancer in the pool of the Italian Network of Cancer Registries (pool AIRT) in the period 1986-1997, shows a statistically significant increase of incidence rates in both males (mean annual increase of + 1.7%) and females (+ 0. 6%). Mortality rates showed a statistically significant decrease, in both sexes, of -0.7%/year among males and -0.9% among females.