Depressed-type early colon cancer that was diagnosed by a positive fecal occult blood test and resected curatively by endoscopic submucosal dissection

Abstract

An asymptomatic man in his 60s with no past or family history of cancer showed a positive result for fecal occult blood test (FOB) during a health check-up. Total colonoscopy identified an irregular, slightly depressed, light reddish lesion of 5 mm in diameter in the descending colon, which was endoscopically diagnosed as a well-differentiated adenocarcinoma localized within the mucosal layer. The patient underwent endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). The histopathological examination revealed the following findings: type IIc, 5 × 5 mm, tubular adenocarcinoma, very well-differentiated (tub1), pTis (M), ly0, v0, VM0, HM0. No recurrence has been observed during the 6 months after the operation. Thus, screening by FOB was found to be useful for making a diagnosis of depressed-type early colon cancer, which was curatively resected by ESD.