MUCINOUS ADENOCARCINOMA OF THE ANAL REGIO N - 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 ret rospective study from the histologic diagnosis back to the first sympt om and up to the last follow-up or death. Patients: We studied all pat ients with a histologic diagnosis of mucinous adenocarcinoma of the an us admitted to our hospital. Results: All of them showed a long histor y of anal inflammatory signs and/or fistula before diagnosis. In all c ases, the tumors were mucinous adenocarcinomas with minimal cytologic atypia. Of the 4 patients, one is dead, and we haye lost the follow-up of another one 13 months after surgery when he had no evidence of rec urrence. Conclusions: In every patient with a long-standing anal fistu la or a recurrent anal abscess, a biopsy is mandatory to rule out an u nderlying low grade mucinous carcinoma and if it shows a low grade muc inous adenocarcinoma, the treatment of choice will be local resection if it is available. If not, an abdominal perineal resection showed be done without hesitation.