Childhood colon cancer in a patient with ataxia telangiectasia

Ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by progressive neurologic impairment and cerebellar ataxia. In addition, patients with this disease are known to have an inherent increased susceptibility to the development of cancer, predominantly hematologic malignancies.

We report the case of a young boy with AT from Russia, who had abdominal pain. Laboratory tests and radiologic examinations were performed to him.

After abdominal computed tomography (CT), colonoscopy and surgical interventions, the young boy was diagnosed with colon cancer that had signet ring cell features.

It is known that the patient with AT appeared to be predisposed to various tumors, including leukemia or lymphoma, which are more common in childhood. Even if the patient with AT could have solid tumor such as stomach cancer or breast cancer, it is less likely to have colon cancer, especially signet ring cell type. Actually, no case of colon cancer has ever been reported, especially in young patient and hence, we have focused on this point and are hereby reporting this unique case.