A 56-year-old Caucasian woman presented to her primary care physician with a 3-month history of intermittent bright red rectal blood with defecation. At her initial visit, a digital rectal examination, anoscopy, and a pelvic examination with DNA testing for high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) were performed; all results were negative. She was referred for a colonoscopy, which revealed an abnormal area with a 3 × 4 cm mass in the rectum at 10 cm from the anal verge. A colonoscopic biopsy of this mass was consistent with an invasive squamous cell.
Staging workup with a total body CT scan (image) and positron emission tomography (PET)/CT scan (image) confirmed the presence of a rectal mass, which demonstrated a standardized uptake value of 10. There was no evidence of nodal or distant metastasis. The patient was referred to medical oncology for further treatment recommendations.…
