Metastatic colon carcinoma found within an enterocele sac: a case report

Abstract

The incidental finding of cancer in a hernial sac is rare, but there are many case reports in the literature. There has never been a report of carcinoma found in an enterocele sac. We present the case of a 77-year-old female with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse who presented for reconstructive pelvic surgery and was found to have metastatic adenocarcinoma contained within an enterocele sac. Incidental diagnosis of asymptomatic carcinoma found on typically discarded tissue from surgical procedures is rare. However, routine pathologic review of all tissue removed from a patient may save a life if carcinoma is found early.

Colonic carcinoma presenting as strangulated inguinal hernia: report of two cases and review of the literature

“…Lejars [2] classified them into three groups based on the anatomical relationship with the hernia sac: intra-saccular, saccular (primary or metastatic lesions involving the peritoneum of the sac), and extra-saccular. Tumours have also been described in umbilical, para-umbilical, femoral, and incisional herniae, and also in enterocoeles [3][4][5][6][7]. Colonic cancer, usually arising in the sigmoid, is the most common cancer found in any hernia [8][9][10][11], but prostate, pancreas, ovary, bile duct, tonsil, stomach, pericardium, skin, appendix, bladder and thymus malignancies have also been reported [3,[12][13][14][15].…”

Caecal adenocarcinoma presenting as metastasis in a hernial sac

“…Though normal cecum has been frequently described in a hernia sac, very few reports available in medical literature describe colonic adenocarcinoma in an inguinal hernia 2–4 . Inguinal hernia and intra‐abdominal malignancies can commonly coexist but rarely does the hernial sac provide first evidence of primary or metastatic cancer.…”

“…This patient was thus incidentally diagnosed. Thus, chance diagnosis of asymptomatic carcinoma found typically on discarded tissue from surgical procedures is rare 4 …”