A case of metastatic small bowel cancer discovered by fdg-pet/ct after rectal cancer surgery

Abstract

The patient was a 76-year-old woman. Low anterior resection was performed for rectal cancer in 2004. The serum CEA level started to increase 16 months after the operation, and was 8.0ng/ml 19 months after the operation. Abdominal contrast CT revealed no abnormal findings. FDG-PET/CT was performed and a malignant tumor of the ileum was strongly suggested because of high FDG accumulation to the ileum. Therefore, we diagnosed metastatic small bowel cancer. She underwent laparotomy, and a partial resection of the ileum was performed. On histopathology, the intestinal tumor was diagnosed as a rectal cancer metastasis. Chemotherapy was conducted after the operation, and no signs of recurrence have been observed to date. We report a case of metastatic small bowel cancer discovered by FDG-PET/CT after surgery for rectal cancer together with a literature review.