Multiple cancer of the colon

Abstract

A case study of a 68 year old woman who was admitted to St. Luke`s Hospital Malta on account of severe colicky pain in the right iliac region of the abdomen is presented. A diagnosis of acute appendicitis was made and retrocecal obstructive appendicitis was found at operation. After full examination, the diagnosis was once again revised, to multiple cancer of the colon, hepatic flexure and appendix. Multiple cancers may occur with no signs of adenomas or polyps as in this case. It is always difficult in any organ to say whether multiple cancers are all primary or whether one is primary and the others secondary since the problems of growth, local spread and metastases of malignant neoplasms are often bizarre and unpredictable.