Colon carcinoma during pregnancy: a lethal coincidence.

Carcinoma of the colon during pregnancy is rare. A 38-year-old woman with an obstructive adenocarcinoma of the left colon diagnosed at 27 weeks of gestation is described. Three months and 21 months after hemicolectomy a right, subsequently left ovariectomy was performed because of metastatic disease. Three years after initial surgery, which was followed by chemotherapy, the patient died of metastatic disease. Until now 26 cases of colon cancer during pregnancy have been described; none of these patients have survived 5 years. Metastatic spread of colon cancer to the ovaries in pregnant patients is frequently observed (25%). The fetal risk is very small, because placental and fetal involvement in maternal malignancy is rarely observed, even in widespread metastatic disease.