The case involved a 71-year-old man. When he was 60-year-old, he got an early gastric cancer of IIc type at the antrum. On preoperative examination for gastrectomy a retroperitoneal tumor was pointed out. The 9×7×4cm ovarian shaped tumor was located in the retropanreatic space between IVC and portal vein. Subtotal gastrectomy and extripation of the retroperitoneal tumor was carried out. The retroperitoneal tumor was dignosed as extraadrenal pheochromocytoma during the operation, because he was attacked by hpertension on extirpation of the tumor. When he was 67-year-old, he got another early gastric cancer of IIa type in the residual stomach and underwent total resection of the residual stomach. Three years later when he was 70-year-old, two small liver tumors and two small retroperitoneal tumors with diameters of 1_??_2cm were detected in the follow up study, There were no symptoms of excessive catecholamine secretion, but these small tumors were diagnosed as recurrent foci of pheochromocytoma by 131I-MIBG scintigraphy and slightly increased catecholamine values in blood and urine. In spite of previous two surgical operations, another exploration was done and these recurrent foci were resected successfully. Ten months later now, we don't find any recurrent foci on follow up studies as yet.
A surgical case of intraabdominal re-recurrent foci of ovarian immature teratoma which had got “transformation” into mature teratoma (retroconversion) is described. The patient was a 26-year-old woman. There was a history of undergoing right salpingo-oophorectomy for a right ovarian tumor and resection of metastatic lesion in the Douglas' pouch when she was 15 years old. Pathological diagnosis was ovarian immature teratoma, and so adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of vincristine, actinomycin D and cyclophosphamide was added. When she was 16 years old, total histerectomy and left salpingooophorectomy were performed for intra-pelvic recurrence. When she was 18 years old, a giant tumor was pointed out in the liver. Since there was no problem in her life and job as a dancer, she has been refusing operation for these eight years. But this time, she made up her mind to accept operation unless certain problems in her life and occupation. Five intraperitoneal tumors were resected. The main tumor resembling a giant hepatic tumor 26×19×13cm in size and other four tumors were considered peritoneal dissemination of the ovarian immature teratoma, and all tumors had already got retroconversion into mature teratoma histologically. She has been well without any recurrence for 15 months after the operation.
