Abstract
The patient in our case was a 90-year-old man with a medical history of resection of the lower anterior rectum for the treatment of a rectal carcinoid tumor 24 years previously. The possibility of the presence of right pleural fluid was considered ; however, this possibility was ruled out by his chest radiography results. Computed tomography (CT) showed the presence of a tumor lesion in the S5 region of the liver. However, his chest CT findings were normal. At first, we intended to resect the intrahepatic bile duct tumor, but considering the patient's old age, we performed a partial S5 liver resection. The results of a histological examination led to the diagnosis of a neuroendocrine tumor (NET) ; the disease was later identified as liver metastasis of the rectal carcinoid tumor that was resected 24 years previously. At present, 7 months after the surgery, the patient is still alive without recurrence. In general, rectal carcinoid tumor is thought to be a low-grade tumor. Thus, tumor progression is slow. Therefore, the possibility of recurrence after a long period of time should be considered during treatment of patients with a medical history of a rectal carcinoid tumor.
