Colon cancer ranks first in the list of cancer cases in Romania. According to GLOBOCAN 2020, approximately 13,000 Romanians receive this diagnosis annually. Colon cancer surpasses even breast, lung or prostate cancer, according to the database, when the cumulative prevalence of both sexes is taken into account.

The diagnosis of colon cancer or precursors of cancer – neoplastic polyps – is established using a colonoscopy, a method of examining the colon using a video camera. If suspicious lesions of neoplasia (the process during which cancer develops) are detected, the doctor may insert special instruments to take tissue samples, but mainly with an interventional goal to remove neoplastic polyps.

This is what happened in the case of a 72-year-old patient from Calaras County. Viorika was treated for more than six months for irritable bowel and chronic gastritis. As her condition did not improve, she came to Bucharest, to the Băneasa Memorial Hospital, for a consultation and re-examination. He came to Dr. Raluc Oprea, a specialist in internal medicine and gastroenterology, with symptoms such as: lack of appetite, bloating, abdominal pain, bleeding in the stool, watery stools and gas. After a colonoscopy performed by Dr. Oprea, she was diagnosed with double colon tumors and was referred to Dr. Eugen Krechun for their resection.

“The tumors were located at two opposite ends of the colon, ie one in the cecum and the other in the rectum. Their size was very large, about seven cm in the cecum and about nine cm in the rectum. These tumors are common, but their coexistence in two areas of the colon is something rare.”– says Dr. Eugene Krachun, gastroenterologist and coordinator of the interventional endoscopy department at Baneas Memorial Hospital.

Although resections are usually performed in two sessions, given the size of the tumor and the complexity of the case, Dr. Crăciun chose to resect both tumors in one operation using innovative techniques.

“Separately, we used a fragmented resection of the mucous membrane, cold, under water (underwater artificial, cold EMF) for a tumor of the cecum, and a fragmentary resection of the mucosa with a thermal circuit (hot-artificial EMI) for a rectal tumor. It should also be noted that the rectal tumor had a distal end approximately three cm from the anal sphincter, thus a very low tumor, which in classical surgery had a high risk of ending in rectal amputation. , according to the installation of the anus against nature”adds Dr Crăciun.

Tumor removal took approximately two and a half hours, and the patient was discharged two hours later after the intervention. His recovery was complete the next day.

“I trusted the doctors 100%. I am very grateful to them for their support and competence. They are very well prepared and mentally tuned to solving special tasks. I’m fine now, I’m at home. On June 22, I had an operation and for some time I followed the regime”– says the patient.

In the end, histology showed that both tumors were neoplastic but not malignant, so if they were resected, the risk of developing cancer at that level would be extremely low, especially if the patient followed a follow-up program. This requires her to return for a follow-up colonoscopy every year.

Dr. Crăciun notes that such neoplastic lesions are common, even if they are not so large, and that they appear at an increasingly young age: “The only real prevention of colon or rectal cancer is timely colonoscopy (maximum at age 50 or earlier, in patients with symptoms of cancer or with a family history of cancer) and proper endoscopic resection of any lesion found.”