Background: Cecal perforation due to neutropenic colitis
is a known and described side effect of many chemother-apy
regimens. We present a case of a patient with gastric
adenocarcinoma who developed spontaneous cecal per-foration
during chemotherapy without the classic pattern
of typhlitis. Case Report: A 58-year-old woman was on
chemotherapy for an adenocarcinoma of the gastric
junction, when she developed a cecal perforation. There
was neither evidence for leucopenia nor for typhlitis. La-parotomy
was performed and cecostomy was estab-lished
using the perforated bowel. Postoperative course
was uneventful. The patient died from tumor progres-sion
8 months after the diagnosis was made. Conclusion:
There is no evidence for a connection between this event
and chemotherapy treatment but neither can it be ex-cluded.
Even if unusual, colon toxicity could be a poten-tial
life-threatening complication associated with more
drugs than usually thought.
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