title: Vaginal stump metastasis from sigmoid colon cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vaginal metastasis from organs other than the uterus is rare. Generally, patients with vaginal metastasis from colorectal cancer have a dismal prognosis. Although biopsy is the best method to make the diagnosis, massive bleeding may occur. On the other hand, liquid-based cytology (LBC) has the utility to perform immunocytochemistry on additional unstained slides: we can make a diagnosis with several immunocytochemical findings.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 67-year-old postmenopausal female presented to our hospital with vaginal bleeding. The patient had undergone colectomy because of her stage III sigmoid colon cancer 3 years earlier. The patient had also undergone hysterectomy for cervical cancer 30 years earlier. LBC from the vaginal stump revealed adenocarcinoma. Immunocytochemically, cancer cells were negative for cytokeratin 7 and positive for cytokeratin 20, which suggested metastasis from the sigmoid colon cancer; the diagnosis was made without a biopsy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  When the patient has a metastatic lesion from colon adenocarcinoma, LBC with immunocytochemistry is useful in making a diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Hospital Organization Osaka Minami Medical Center, Osaka, Japan. tomohito@ommc-hp.jp
authors.forename: Tomohito
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Takayoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kanda
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakaguchi
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Munakata
authors.forename: Masahide
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ohmichi
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007044:Hysterectomy; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D053554:Keratin-20 / Q000378:metabolism; D053552:Keratin-7 / Q000378:metabolism; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012811:Sigmoid Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D014625:Vaginal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D053554:Keratin-20; D053552:Keratin-7