α -Fetoprotein Producing Ascending Colon Carcinoma; A Case Report and Literature Review

Tadashi Matsuhisa, Kenichi Inoue, Shunji Yamada, Masahiko Koike, Yuji Kawamukai and Yoshinobu Akasaka

Department of Surgery, Kohnan Hospital

A 72-year-old woman referred to us with an abnormal lesion in radiography showed a nodular shadow in the left lung, 2 tumors growing from the liver surface, and a cystic tumor in the pelvic catity in computed tomgraphy (CT). Colonic fiberscopy showed advanced cancer at the ascending colon. She underwent surgery under the diagnosis of ascending colon cancer, ovarian cancer, or both, with metastases to the lung and disseminations to the liver. Ascending colon carcinoma was not so invasive, but the ovarian tumor had invaded the urinary bladder, suggesting that disseminations and distant metastases were of ovarian origin. We conducted bilateral oehorectomies and iliocecum resection with lymph node resection. Microscopically, the tumor of the ascending colon, AFP-producing moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma, was found to be a primary lesion that had metasticised to the ovary and lung and disseminated to the liver and peritoneum. AFP immediately after operation was 69.7 ng/ml.

Key words
α-fetoprotein, colorectal cancer

Reprint requests
Tadashi Matsuhisa Department of Surgery, Kohnan Hospital Hiragishi 1-6, Toyohira, Sapporo, 062-0931 JAPAN

Accepted
January 30, 2002

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