Breast and Ovarian Metastases from Mucinous Carcinoma of the Rectum: A Case Report

Kazuhide Ozaki, Madoka Hamada, Yuichi Saisaka, Yuichi Shibuya, Yasuo Shima, Yutaka Nishioka, Takahiro Okabayashi and Tadashi Horimi

Department of Surgery, Kochi Municipal Central Hospital

A 32-year-old woman undergoing Hartmann's operation due to advanced rectal cancer and diagnosed pathologically with signet-ring cell carcinoma, Rs, Type 3, se, n4 (+), underwent adjuvant chemotherapy with 5FU, CDDP, and CPT-11. Four months later, she found in abdominal computed tomography (CT) to have a pelvic mass and simultaneously a right-side breast tumor. In abdominal CT at 50 days later, the pelvic mass had grown to 20×15×15 cm, requiring resection to remove her abdominal pain. The resected specimen was pathologically diagnosed as signet-ring cell carcinoma, the same as the rectal lesion. Needle biopsy also showed the breast tumor to be signet-ring cell carcinoma. The definitive diagnosis was metachronous breast and ovarian metastases from rectal signet-ring cell carcinoma, clinically a very rare case.

Key words
signet-ring cell carcinoma, rectal cancer, metastatic tumor

Reprint requests
Kazuhide Ozaki Department of Digestive Surgery, Kochi Health Sciences Center
2125-1 Ike, Kochi, 781-8555 JAPAN

Accepted
April 26, 2006

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