Abstract
A 30-year-old man complaining of abdominal pain and diarrhea underwent a laparotomy for rectal cancer at another hospital which had already invaded the bladder, ileum and pelvis and were thought to be unresectable. Only a sigmoidostomy was made and thereafter the patient was referred to the hospital. After admission adjuvant radiotherapy at a total dose of 50Gy (2Gy×25times) was attempted. As a result, the tumor significantly decreased and invasive signs disappeared. We decided to carry out a curable operation at this point. Laparotomy revealed that the tumor was localized in the Rs and did not invade other organs, therefore the entire tumor was successfully removed without any damage to other organs. Histological examination of the removed specimen revealed no viable tumor cells.
We retrospectively examined the biopsy tissue and found it stained with P53(-) and P21(+) antigen expression. This means a fact that rectal cancer of P53(-) and P21(+) expression is sensitive to radiation and even far advanced rectal cancer can be cured by using adjuvant radiotherapy.
