http://crcp.sciedupress.com Case Reports in Clinical Pathology, 2015, Vol. 2, No. 1 Published by Sciedu Press 55 CASE REPORT Laparoscopic resection of a tumor in the descending colon cancer associated with Crohn’s disease: a case report Shinsuke Kazama 1 , Tomomichi Kiyomatsu 1 , Teppei Morikawa 2 , Satomi Yoneyama 1 , Toshiaki Tanaka 1 , Junichiro Tanaka 1 , Kazushige Kawai 1 , Hironori Yamaguchi 1 , Hiroaki Nozawa 1 , Takamitsu Kanazawa 1 , Soichiro I shihara 1 , Eiji Sunami 1 , Toshiaki Watanabe 1 1. Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. 2. Department of Pathology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Correspondence: Shinsuke Kazama, M.D. Address: Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan. E-mail: kaz-tky@umin.ac.jp Received: July 30, 2014 Accepted: September 19, 2014 Online Published: October 20, 2014 DOI : 10.5430/crcp.v2n1p55 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/crcp.v2n1p55 Abstract Background: Although patients with Crohn’s disease are at an increased risk of cancer, surveillance strategies and surgical guidelines for colorectal cancer that is associated with Crohn’s disease have not been established. Case report: We describe a 60-year-old man with a 30-year history of Crohn’s disease within the large bowel who had been undergoing annual colonoscopic surveillance and presented with a tumor in the descending colon. An elevated mass lesion that occupied the intestinal lumen was not detected until one year after his last surveillance procedure. A biopsy of the lesion revealed high-grade dysplasia, and immunohistochemistry showed that the lesion was positive for tumor protein p53. We suspected cancer in the descending colon as a complication of Crohn’s disease and performed a laparoscopic- assisted left hemicolectomy. Histologically, this patient had stage II colon cancer. Conclusion: An accumulation of case reports that describe Crohn’s disease in association with cancer will help to establish suitable surveillance strategies and surgical procedures. Therefore, the need for surveillance to manage patients with Crohn’s disease must be discussed in the future. Key words Crohn’s disease, Colon cancer, Surveillance colonoscopy 1 I ntroduction Colorectal cancer is a serious complication of inflammatory bowel disease. Indeed, patients with long-standing ulcerative colitis are at a high risk of developing colorectal cancer [1] . However, colorectal cancer associated with Crohn’s disease (CD) is not well understood. Although some meta-analyses describe an increased incidence of colorectal cancer in patients with CD, the risk factors for colorectal cancer associated with CD have not been established [2, 3] . Moreover, the necessity for surveillance recommendations and a surgical strategy for colorectal cancer associated with CD have been highlighted.