IT IS a well established fact that metastatic tumors arising in distant sites may encroach on the rectum, producing symptoms referable to the lower part of the bowel and findings misinterpreted as those of a primary rectal malignant growth. It is the purpose of this paper to report an unusual case of a carcinoma of the breast which metastasized to the rectum, producing a diffuse infiltrative lesion which was thought to be a second primary growth arising in the rectum.
Involvement of the rectum by metastatic growths from extrapelvic organs is not uncommon. Malignant or nonmalignant processes, in the immediate vicinity of the rectovesical or rectouterine sulcus, may easily assume the form of an extension or shelf by impinging on the anterior rectal wall. The differential diagnosis of such processes is usually not difficult if one is familiar with the anatomy of the pelvic organs in the male and the