A Case of Primary Metachronous Adenocarcinoma of the Small Intestine after Resection for Rectal Cancer

We herein report a case of primary metachronous adenocarcinoma of the small intestine after resection for rectal cancer. A 68-years-old woman underwent abdominoperineal resection for stage II rectal cancer in April 1999. Twenty months after the first operation, she began to have anemia. Thereafter, she was diagnosed as having a tumor of the small intestine, by upper gastrointestinal examination. At age 70, she underwent a partial resection of the small intestine. Histopathological findings of the resected specimen indicated a primary adenocarcinoma of the small intestine. She had no postoperative complications, and left the hospital on the 13th postoperative day. We think it is necessary to examine the small intestine when patients with resected carcinoma have continuous anemia.