Sacral chordoma with incidental rectal adenocarcinoma: a case report

BACKGROUND: We report a unique case of synchronous sacrococcygeal chordoma in association with rectal invasive adenocarcinoma. Retrorectal tumors are a rare disease caused by a variety of pathologies. To our knowledge, no prior cases of such a coincidental finding of both cancers have been reported in the literature. CASE PRESENTATION: This is the case of a 74-year-old white middle eastern man, with known hypertension under treatment, who presented with complaints of progressive lower back pain associated with urinary incontinence over the past 12 months. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the pelvis showed a large midline, well-defined, oval-shaped lesion replacing the sacrococcygeal portion of the spine, with extension to the presacral region. Computed tomography (CT)-guided Tru-Cut biopsy revealed features suggestive of chordoma. At surgery, we performed excision of the entire mass en bloc, sacrectomy with rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap reconstruction and end sigmoid colostomy. Surgical histopathology proved it to be sacral dedifferentiated chordoma and rectal invasive adenocarcinoma. Overall, the patient recovered well postoperatively, was discharged home with functional stoma and on permanent Foley catheter use. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this is the only reported case of such a presentation, and sheds light on the approach and management. We hope that reporting such a case will add value to the medical literature. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13256-021-02728-2.