Synchronous and “early” metachronous colorectal adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Preoperative barium enema examination was an unsatisfactory tool for detecting synchronous tumors. Preoperative colonoscopy demonstrated a higher positivity rate, but it still failed to detect nearly 30 percent of cases with synchronous tumors. Intraoperative palpation of the whole colorectum could detect nearly 60 percent of unexpected synchronous tumors. We believe both colonoscopy and intraoperative palpation of the whole colorectum are crucial to the early detection of synchronous colorectal cancer.