1998 Volume 59 Issue 10 Pages 2633-2636
We experienced a case of undifferentiated carcinoma of the ascending colon found out after removal of a brain metastasis.
A 47-year-old man underwent a removal of a metastatic brain tumor which was histolosically small cell carcinoma but no lesions in the lung and thyroid were seen. One month later he developed intestinal obstruction that led to detecting a Borrmann III type cancer in the ascending colon. A right hemicolectomy was performed.
Histopathologically it was undifferentiated carcinoma presenting histological morphology resemblant to pulmonary small cell carcinoma. From these findings, it was thought that the brain tumor was metastasis from the colonic undifferentiated cancer.
Undifferentiated cancers rarely arise in the large intestine, especially those metastasizing to the brain alone which has not been reported so far. We have to keep this very rare mode of metastasis manifesting histologic morphology like small cell carcinoma.
Nihon Rinsho Geka Gakkai Zasshi (Journal of Japan Surgical Association)
