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Case Reports
. 2021 Jul 13;13(7):e16370.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.16370. eCollection 2021 Jul.

A Rare Presentation of Appendiceal Carcinoma

Kevin Walsh  1 , Niranjan Ojha  1 , Amitpal Nat  1 , Lorenzo Gitto  2 , Vesna Untanu  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

A Rare Presentation of Appendiceal Carcinoma

Kevin Walsh et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Appendiceal cancer is a rare malignancy. Our patient presented initially to her primary care physician due to symptoms of lightheadedness and dizziness and was found to have severe anemia requiring hospital admission. She underwent a colonoscopy and was found to have mucosal ulceration in the appendiceal orifice. She underwent a biopsy of the ulceration, which was remarkable for moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. The patient then underwent a right hemicolectomy. The usual presentation for appendiceal carcinoma is acute appendicitis; however, our patient presented with the microcytic anemia.

Keywords: anemia; appendiceal cancer; appendicitis; hemicolectomy; iron deficiency.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Mucosal ulceration in appendiceal orifice (picture taken from colonoscopy).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Microscopic examination showed metastatic adenocarcinoma (A, B – H&E, 40x and 200x). The tumor cells stained positive for CDX2 (C) and CK20 (D, partial) and negative for CK7.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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