Presentation
Abdominal pain and chronic constipation.
Patient Data
A 4 mm subpleural nodule is noted at right lower lobe which seems to be fibrotic.
Circumferential wall thickening due to tumoral infiltration is noted at middle and superior portion of rectum associated with mild perirectal fat stranding. A few perirectal lymphadenopathies are present. There is no sign local invasion to mesorectal facia and other pelvic organs.
The prostate gland is enlarged.
Grade I spondylolisthesis with bilateral spondylolysis are noted at L5/S1 level.
Case Discussion
In a 55 years patient with abdominal pain and chronic constipation features on CT scan are compatible with rectal tumoral infiltration. The patient underwent proctoscopy and biopsy and histopathology evaluation confirms rectal adenocarcinoma.
Colorectal cancers can be found anywhere from the cecum to the rectum. Rectosigmoid involvement includes about 55% of cases as the most common site of colorectal cancer. CT is the modality most used for staging colorectal carcinoma, however, MRI is the preferred modality for the staging of rectal cancer.