A case of multiple cancers in the pelvic organs after radiation for uterine cancer

Patients who have undergone pelvic irradiation are reported to be at an increased risk of subsequently developing malignancies of the pelvic organs. We report a case of multiple cancers in the pelvic organs after radiation therapy for uterine cancer. The patient was a 76-year-old woman who had undergone a hysterectomy with radiation therapy for uterine cancer in 1960. Thereafter, she had undergone a total cystectomy for bladder cancer in 1989; an abdominoperineal resection for rectal cancer with radiation proctitis in February 1991; and a right hemicolectomy for cecum cancer in 1995. Then, in 2005, she was found to have early cancer of the sigmoid colon at the stoma, so that the colon was dissected from the periphery of the stoma, the sigmoid colon was removed, and an artificial anus was reconstructed again. The histopathological diagnosis was early well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. She had undergone three operations for multiple cancers of the large intestine in the pelvis at different times during 16 years since 1989 when the bladder cancer was detected and surgically treated. And she has been alive and well. Long-term follow-up would be mandatory for such patients undergone pelvic irradiation who might be able to survive for a long time with appropriate therapies like this patient. (author)