Abstract
A 66-year-old woman was found to have sigmoid colon cancer by colonoscopy at a periodic medical checkup, and was admitted to the hospital for surgery. A biopsy resulted in well to moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. Because local submucosa invasion was likely, laparoscopic-assisted sigmoidectomy was performed. Blood analysis performed immediately after the operation showed high serum amylase and lipase levels, 824 mg/dl and 2179 mg/dl, respectively. However, she had no back pain and an abdominal CT scan also showed no abnormal findings of the pancreas and the surroundings. Pancreatitis was unlikely. Conservative therapy by administering a protease inhibitor normalized both serum amylase and lipase levels on the second postoperative day. The histopathological diagnosis was well to moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma, tumor invasion depth of sm2, ly1, v0 and pN0. The lesion was positive for amylase staining and the tumor was thus diagnosed as amylase-producing tumor.
Although amylase-producing tumors associating with lung cancer have sometimes been reported in this country, such tumors associating with colonic cancer have not been reported so far. We present this very rare case of amylase-producing sigmoid colon cancer which was surgically resected.
