Collision tumor of the rectum: A case report of metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma plus primary rectal adenocarcinoma

Collision tumors are thought to arise from the accidental meeting and interpenetration of two independent tumors. We report here a highly unusual case of a 61-year old man who had a unique tumor that was composed of a metastatic adenocarcinoma from the stomach to the rectum, which harbored a collision tumor of primary rectal adenocarcinoma. The clonalities of the two histologically distinct lesions of the rectal mass were confirmed by immunohistochemical and molecular analysis. Although histologic examination is the cornerstone in pathology, immunohistochemical and molecular analysis can provide evidence regarding whether tumors originate from the same clone or different clones. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of such an occurrence. (C) 2006 The WJG Press. All rights reserved.