MORE ON THE ASSOCIATION OF GASTRIC AND COLONIC NEOPLASMS

The report of the association of synchronous gastric polyp and colon cancer in the last Journal issue (Cooper H, Dhar A. Synchronous gastric polyp and colonic cancer. J R Coll Physicians Edinb 2009; 39:218-20) has, as its corollary, the occurrence of metastases to the stomach from primary adenocarcinoma of the colon.¹ In the latter series there were five such cases, one identified by endoscopy, and four by autopsy. The five cases comprised 7% of 67 examples of primary tumours metastatic to the stomach¹. The reverse scenario is exemplified by primary gastric adenocarcinoma metastasising to the colon. In the latter instance, the metastases presented as multiple colonic polyps.² Apart from the two-way neoplastic traffic between stomach and colon^1-2 colorectal cancer can also metastasise to the small bowel.³