Curative resection after percutaneous drainage followed by preoperative panitumumab monotherapy for locally advanced sigmoid colon cancer with intra-abdominal abscess: a case report

Abstract

Background The gold standard treatment for locally advanced colon cancer is curative surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy, although this approach is associated with serious concerns, such as high recurrence rates and occasionally unnecessary oversurgery. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be a promising strategy for overcoming these issues. This study reports a case of a recurrence-free patient who underwent curative resection without significant organ dysfunction after preoperative chemotherapy for locally advanced sigmoid colon cancer. The tumor coexisted with a large intra-abdominal abscess, and the patient was quite frail at the first visit. We performed percutaneous drainage followed by preoperative panitumumab monotherapy, which yielded favorable outcomes. Case presentation A 78-year-old frail woman was emergently transferred to our hospital with fever and abdominal pain. The diagnosis was locally advanced sigmoid colon cancer stage IIIC (T4bN2aM0) with a large intra-abdominal abscess. Immediate curative surgery was inappropriate, considering both tumor progression and the patient’s frailty. We performed percutaneous drainage and colostomy construction, which was followed by seven cycles of preoperative panitumumab monotherapy without significant adverse events. After these treatments, inflammation was well controlled, and the tumor shrank remarkably. Furthermore, the patient recovered well from frailty; therefore, curative sigmoidectomy combined with resection of the left ovary and stoma closure was possible without any postoperative complications. The final pathological finding was T3N0M0, stage IIA disease. The patient was recurrence-free and had no significant organ dysfunction 21 months after the curative surgery. Conclusions The management of intra-abdominal abscesses and tailor-made preoperative chemotherapy based on the patient’s frailty may have been the key factors responsible for the favorable course of this patient. Although further research is needed on the appropriateness of percutaneous drainage for malignancies related to intra-abdominal abscesses and preoperative panitumumab use for locally advanced colon cancer, the study findings can serve as reference for managing similar cases in an aging society.