AccScience Publishing / GTM / Volume 3 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.36922/gtm.2114
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CASE REPORT

You’re a pain in my side! Abscess and microperforation as a complication of therapy from early-stage endometrial cancer: A case report

Jennifer McCall1* Jena Hall1 Elena Park1
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1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Global Translational Medicine 2024, 3(1), 2114 https://doi.org/10.36922/gtm.2114
Submitted: 26 October 2023 | Accepted: 30 January 2024 | Published: 19 March 2024
© 2024 by the Author (s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

This paper reports on a 55-year-old woman presenting with left lower quadrant and groin pain that posed a significant diagnostic challenge. She had a history of obesity and stage 1B endometrial carcinoma treated with surgery and radiation 1-year prior. Despite several unsuccessful biopsy attempts and unclear imaging findings, she was ultimately diagnosed with a pelvic sidewall abscess secondary to a bowel microperforation, a rare late complication of radiation related to adhesions, weakened bowel, and peristalsis. Her condition was successfully treated with drainage and antibiotics. It is widely known that patients with endometrial cancer and comorbid obesity often experience diagnostic delay, weight stigma, and other barriers and thus deserve careful attention and continued advocacy.

Keywords
Endometrial cancer
Obesity
Weight stigma
Radiation
Case report
Funding
None.
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Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Global Translational Medicine, Electronic ISSN: 2811-0021 Published by AccScience Publishing