A CASE OF METASTATIC CANCER OF THE CHEST WALL FROM RECTAL CANCER WHICH COULD BE ALLEVIATED BY RESECTION OF THE CHEST WALL WITH RECONSTRUCTION

A 40-year-old woman had been treated with low anterior resection for rectal cancer nine years before, and with left upper lobectomy for lung metastasis of the cancer three years before. Since around four months before, the serum level of carcinoembryonic antigen started to elevate gradually, and the mass in the left chest wall was noticed. En-block resection of the chest wall including three ribs and a part of the lung was performed, and a large defect after wide resection of the chest wall was reconstructed with marlex mesh which was used as a prothetic material. The post-operative course was quite uneventful. She complained of neither paradoxical movement of the chest wall nor foreign body reactions postoperatively. The mass was diagnosed as metastasis of the rectal cancer, histologically.Eight months after discharge, multiple metastases in her both lung were noticed. The patient was admitted again and now in the treatment with immunochemotherapy.