A Mis-Diagnosed Case of Cancer Colon- A Case Report

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality worldwide. Its clinical presentation is often subtle, leading to frequent delays in diagnosis and often confused with Gastrointestinal tuberculosis (GI TB) which has been found to have a similar presentation. The incidence of underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis of cancer is reported to be very high according to several studies, especially in areas with a high prevalence of TB. Here we present a similar case of a 57-year-old male patient who was misdiagnosed earlier as a case of GI TB and was empirically started on ATT in a tertiary care hospital and later diagnosed to have colon cancer in our institute. Hence this case report is being shared to enhance our understanding of this uncommon scenario. It is important to consider malignancy as a potential diagnosis for patients without a history of pulmonary TB who present with non-specific gastrointestinal symptoms. We assert that in high tuberculosis prevalence settings like India, suspicion of malignancy should also be maintained, and advanced testing should be conducted when clinical and radiological findings do not differentiate between the two conditions.