Abstract
Two cases of intussusception caused by colon cancer are reported with a review of the literature. In case 1 the patient was a 22-year-old woman with abdominal pain and melena. An ultrasonography and a barium enema revealed an intussusception into the right transverse colon and it was reduced by the barium enema. The following barium enema and colonoscopy revealed that the intussusception was caused by type 1 carcinoma of the caecum, and a curative operation was performed. In case 2 the patient was a 75-year-old man with melena. A barium enema revealed type 1 sigmoid cancer. A colonoscopy after abdominal pain revealed an intussusception caused by the cancer. Intraoperatively, without reduction, a curative operation was performed. We compared 37 cases so far reported in Japan, including our 2 cases, with 294 cases of colon cancers which were resected in our surgical department. The main sites of the intussuscepted cancer were the sigmoid colon (51.4%) and the caecum (32.4%). The tumor size was not related to the frequency of intussusception, and it was relatively easy for early cancers to intussuscept. Almost all the colon cancers associated with intussusception (93.1%) were of the non-infiltrating type.
