Prostate carcinoma is a frequent disease in the elderly and in advanced cases it can cause rectal invasion mimicking a primary rectal carcinoma. Most of patients present with significant rectal symptoms and mild to absent urinary tract symptoms. We report a case of a patient with a very aggressive locally invasive prostate carcinoma with a concomitant rectal villous tumor which was misdiagnosed and inadequately treated as a rectal cancer. The reported incidence of rectal invasion in advanced prostate cancer has varied between 1 to 11 per cent in different series. The appearance of the prostate tumor with involvement of the rectum causes difficulties in differentiating it from primary rectal carcinoma. Neither radiological nor endoscopic examination of the rectum or lower urinary tract provides a definitive diagnosis. Histopathology in both primary prostate carcinoma invasive to the rectum and primary rectal carcinoma usually is poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma.The differentiation of rectal involvement from prostatic carcinoma is essential, since therapy is quite different for the two diseases. The high incidence of prostatic carcinoma makes it important for all physicians are aware of frequency in which it involves the rectum and mimic a primary rectal neoplasm.
Prostatic Neoplasms; Rectal Neoplasms; Colorectal Surgery; Prostate; Rectum
