Abstract
Between 1975 and 1988, 74 among 1037 patients operated on for colorectal carcinoma were diagnosed as having primary carcinomas in other organs. Colorectal carcinoma was frequently found on the right side of the colon. Among carcinomas in other organs, gastric carcinoma was the most common (40.5%), following by uterine carcinoma (15.2%), breast carcinoma and hepatoma (10.3%) each. Extracolic carcinomas appeared as much as two years preoperatively and ten years postoperatively. Gastroenterological carcinomas, mainly those of the stomach, were detected almost at the same time as the operation. Uterine carcinomas were found to precede colorectal carcinomas. It took many years, 16.3 years on an average, after uterine carcinomas were treated for colorectal carcinomas to be found. We suspect that some of these colorectal carcinomas might be induced by radiotherapy. We conclude that the stomach should be carefully examined both preoperatively and during follow-up for colorectal carcinoma, and that some sort of surveillance routine should be established for patients who had treated with radiotherapy for uterine carcinoma more than 5 years previously.
