Abstract
A 60-year-old woman, who was followed in the outpatient clinic after a sigmoidectomy for advanced cancer of the sigmoid colon on November 19, 1992, was admitted to the hospital because of metachronous solitay metastasis in the spleen. She underwent a splenectomy on June 12, 1994. After the operation she had been administered anticancer drug perosly on an ambulant basis. But she died of live failure due to multiple liver metastasis 15 months after the reoperation. Splenic metastasis from colorectal cancer is extremely rare. It is believed that metachronous solitary splenic metastasis, that is seen only in the spleen with lapse of over a year after the first procedure, may have a good prognosis. However, there are some cases with poor prognosis, like our case. Although the splenectomy must be an effective therapy for them. it is important to detect splenic metastasis as soon as possible for improving the prognosis. And we must be careful not only for local recurrence, liver metastasis, and lung metastasis but also for possible splenic metastasis after operation for colorectal cancer.
