Synchronous hepatocellular carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the colon

It is not uncommon for patients with colon cancer to have a second primary neoplasm. The reported incidence of synchronous colon tumors is approximately about 3 to 4 per cent. Colon cancer also may be associated with a synchronous extra-colonic neoplasm; this incidence is less well defined and certainly is less emphasized in the literature. The authors recently treated a patient who had a synchronous hepatoma and adenocarcinoma of the colon. This appears to be the first report of these tumors presenting synchronously. The patient had both tumors resected and has no evidence of recurrence ten months later. This case illustrates the need to seek both colonic and extra-colonic synchronous tumors in patients discovered to have a colon cancer.