CURATIVE SURGERY FOR COLON CANCER IN AN 101-YEAR-OLD WOMAN

Abstract

With the aging of the Japanese population year by year, the number of laparotomies performed on patients of an extremely advanced age will go on increasing. This report is concerned with an 101-year-old woman who underwent a curative operation for cancer of the transverse colon. After her initial complaint of hematochezia was diagnosed as transverse colon cancer at another clinic, she was admitted to the hospital. A right hemicolectomy combined with a resection of the small intestine was performed. Invasion of the ileum was noted, but there was no lymph node metastasis, liver metastasis, or peritoneal dissemination, so that surgery with curability A was considered feasible. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient was discharged on the 15th postoperative day. So far, 14 cases, including our patient, of laparotomy in patients over 100 years old have been reported in Japan. Of these 14 cases, elective surgery was performed in three case, included our case. All three cases were of colorectal cancer and no death were noted among them. We think that elective laparotomy with the same degree of surgical invasiveness as a colectomy can be safely performed without severe complications even for patients of an extremely advanced age, that is, over 100 years old.