Colon Cancer in Pregnancy

Abstract

cancer associated with pregnancy have been reported in the literature.2 A review of 205 of these cases performed by Bernstein et al3 demonstrated that 85% of these cancers were located below the peritoneal reflection. The symptoms of colorectal cancer include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, altered bowel movements, and rectal bleeding. Since these symptoms are commonly found in the pregnant population as a whole, physicians and patients usually attribute them to the usual manifestations of pregnancy without an appropriate evaluation. The delay in initiating the workup for the symptoms related to colorectal cancer is a major contributing factor to the poor prognosis associated with this disease. 4 We present another case of colorectal cancer located below the peritoneal reflection that was diagnosed at an advanced stage.