Abstract
The patient was a 68-year-old woman who underwent left colectomy for descending colon cancer elsewhere 12 years earlier when the tumor was diagnosed as moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma and was staged as T2, N0, M0, Stage I(TNM classification). She was referred to our hospital, because abdominal ultrasonography and CT scan in a local doctor detected a tumorous lesion with calcification in the right hepatic lobe. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy and colonoscopy revealed no findings suggestive of malignant disease, and abdominal CT and MRI scans showed an enhanced tumor with calcification in the segment 5 of the liver. Serum carcinoembryonic antigen level also increased. Because it was likely to be a malignant disease, we performed partial hepatectomy (S5). Microscopic examination of the resected specimen showed the same pathological images as the primary descending colon cancer. We diagnosed the tumor as hepatic metastasis of descending colon cancer 12 years after surgery for the primary lesion. Although it is rare that Stage I colorectal cancer recurs after a lapse of over 5 years after surgery, we should always keep a possibility of the recurrence in mind, if the patient has a history of colorectal cancer.
