It is relatively rare that a patient with peritoneal metastasis of a colonic canser will be a candidate for reoperation. We experienced with such a case where peritoneal metastasis was resected twice during three years after the initial operation.
A 71-year-old woman was seen at the hospital because of an abdominal mass.
There were previous histories of undergoing a sigmoidectomy for a cancer of the sigmoid colon which partially included mucinous carcinoma 3 years before, and undergoing a resection for metastasis which appeared as an hen's egg sized abdominal mass one year before. This time she noticed an abdominal mass and aspiration of the mass revealed mucous fluid same as the previous time. On operation, a tumor, size of a fist, with invasion to the stomach wall was resected. Otherwise, there was no dissemination in the abdominal cavity. She has been well without evident recurrence as of six months after the last operation.
The prognosis of patients with mucinous carcinoma of the colon is usually poor. The present case had solitary metastasis and so took a favorable course, because carcinoma cells in mucous fluid were not signet-ring type cell.