A Case of Recurrent Transverse Colon Cancer at the Abdominal Wall Occured along a Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt Tube

Abstract

This case pertains to a 71-year-old woman who had undergone ventriculoperitoneal (V-P) shunt placement at the age of 58 years due to postoperative hydrocephalus. At the age of 63 years, the patient had undergone transverse colectomy (D3) for transverse colon cancer, but the V-P shunt was not displaced. The pathological diagnosis was pT4N2M0 stage IIIb. Eight years after surgery, a mass in the lower right abdomen was observed. Abdominal computed tomography revealed a tumor at the same area that was penetrated by the V-P shunt tube. A biopsy of the mass revealed recurrence of colon cancer. Hence, neoadjuvant chemotherapy was administered, which reduced the size of the tumor. There were no other metastatic or recurrent lesions ; thus, we resected the abdominal wall tumor containing the V-P shunt tube. A V-P shunt revision was performed. The resected specimen showed that the shunt tube penetrated the tumor. The pathological diagnosis was colon cancer metastasis. A possible cause of recurrence was implantation of cancer cells along the tube. Here, we have reported a rare case of recurrence of colorectal cancer at the abdominal wall containing a V-P shunt tube. To the best of our knowledge, no such cases have been reported in the literature.