Abstract
Aim
The development of synchronous cancers of the colon and the stomach is particularly rare. An unusual case of advanced synchronous colon and gastric carcinoma is described and the literature reviewed.
Case report
An 85 year-old female was admitted to our Department with a stenosing left colon cancer, without evidence of abdominal diffusion, diagnosed by means of abdominal computed tomography which was performed for lower crampy abdominal pain, gross blood in the stool, anaemia and mild fatigue. Colonoscopy revealed a friable, bleeding mass of the sigmoid colon and also detected two distal colon polyps, adjacent to the tumour. During laparotomy, in addition to colon cancer, an advanced antral gastric cancer was incidentally found. Subtotal gastrectomy (Billroth II) and partial left colectomy were performed. At histology, a moderately differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma and two moderately differentiated colon adenocarcinomas, one of which with a tubulovillous component and lymph node metastases, where revealed. Both tumours showed a low expression of p53 and C-erbB-2 oncoproteins. Nine months after the operation the patient is alive, with no evidence of recurring disease.
Conclusions
Despite the low probability of a primary neoplasm of the large bowel appearing with a synchronous, also primary, tumour of the GI tract, its presence mandate changes in the surgical planning of its excision, more often than not, intraoperatively, with all the difficulties that this entails.
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Mylonakis, E., Klimis, A., Vlachos, G. et al. Synchronous colon and advanced gastric cancer. Hellenic J Surg 84, 314–316 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13126-012-0049-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13126-012-0049-2