[Mucinous adenocarcinoma of the anal region. Study of 4 cases].

OBJECTIVE

We report 4 cases of a special anal tumor featuring a long history of inflammatory signs and fistulas in that area.

DESIGN

A retrospective study from the histologic diagnosis back to the first symptom and up to the last follow-up or death.

PATIENTS

We studied all patients with a histologic diagnosis of mucinous adenocarcinoma of the anus admitted to our hospital.

RESULTS

All of them showed a long history of anal inflammatory signs and/or fistula before diagnosis. In all cases, the tumors were mucinous adenocarcinomas with minimal cytologic atypia. Of the 4 patients, one is dead, and we have lost the follow-up of another one 13 months after surgery when he had no evidence of recurrence.

CONCLUSIONS

In every patient with a long-standing anal fistula or a recurrent anal abscess, a biopsy is mandatory to rule out an underlying low grade mucinous carcinoma and if it shows a low grade mucinous adenocarcinoma, the treatment of choice will be local resection if it is available. If not, an abdominal perineal resection showed be done without hesitation.