A Case of Small Rectal Carcinoid Tumor Found after Resecting the Liver Metastases

Toshihisa Nosaka, Narihide Goseki, Takehisa Iwai and Takumi Akashi^*

Departments of Surgery and Pathology^*, Tokyo Medical & Dental University

A 57-year-old woman presented with a 7×6×3 cm tumor in the posterior segment of the liver. It was diagnosed as carcinoid by needle biopsy but had no endocrine symptoms. Preoperative examination revealed no lesions in other organs. The posterior segment was resected and exploration and pathological examination revealed two additional small carcinoid lesions in the liver. Eight months after liver surgery, a rectal carcinoid tumor was found and resected endoscopically. It was only 5 mm in diameter and was located within the submucosal layer of the rectum. Two years later another carcinoid tumor was found in the liver and removed. The patient currently has multiple tumors in the liver, but has survived for more than 6 years after the first liver resection. Although rectal carcinoids smaller than 10 mm in diameter rarely metastasize, the liver carcinoid tumors in our case were thought to be metastases of the small rectal carcinoid. Only 15 cases of rectal carcinoid tumors under 10 mm that caused hepatic metastases have been reported in the Japanese literature.

Key words
small rectal carcinoid, metastatic liver carcinoid

Reprint requests
Toshihisa Nosaka Department of Surgery I Tokyo Medical & Dental University 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8519 JAPAN

Accepted
October 31, 2000

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