ABSTRACT We report a case of metastatic colon adenocarcinoma discovered following the diagnosis of maxillary gingival carcinoma. The patient underwent a systemic workup for suspected adenocarcinoma of the maxillary gingiva, which revealed sigmoid colon cancer with metastases in other organs. Subsequently, the patient underwent surgery for the primary sigmoid colon cancer and the metastatic maxillary gingival tumor, followed by postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. After the treatment was initiated, disease control was achieved in the sigmoid colon and metastatic sites. Particularly, the maxillary gingival tumor had completely resolved and had no substantial impact on oral intake. Rectal cancer with metastases in other organs is generally associated with a poor prognosis. As treatment for metastatic lesions is often initiated after resection of the primary tumor, there is a risk of progression at metastatic sites. Thus, early and aggressive therapeutic intervention should be considered, especially when metastases are located in the oral cavity, because tumor progression may impair oral intake.
Ishida et al. (Thu,) studied this question.