Age is nothing but a number: radical en bloc resection of colon adenocarcinoma with abdominal wall reconstruction in an 81 year old

Colon adenocarcinoma is a common neoplasm, which rarely presents with full thickness invasion through the abdominal wall. Aggressive treatment is often reserved for younger patients, with many surgeons opting to consider elderly patients as non-operative candidates, especially in the setting of diffuse disease. We report a case of radical resection of a colon cancer, with full thickness abdominal wall invasion in an 81-year-old female. The patient presented with gradual abdominal swelling over multiple months. She had a CT scan revealing a mass eroding through her abdominal wall, up to the skin. Operative resection with adjuvant chemotherapy was chosen as therapy because the patient had no co-morbidities. The patient underwent en bloc resection of the abdominal wall with right hemicolectomy and resection of all structures attached to the mass. The patient has been disease free for 24 months and has had return to her baseline activities of daily living.