Squamous cell carcinoma of the descending colon: report of a case and literature review.

It is very rare that squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) arises from colorectal epithelium. An 89-year-old man was treated in 2001 with chief complaints of anorexia, abdominal pain, and low grade fever. The histological diagnosis as SCC was determined by biopsy during a colonoscopy. We diagnosed primary SCC of the colon because except in the colon no malignant lesions were found by systemic CT. Surgical complete resection was performed. However, he died three months after surgical resection because of hepatic metastasis and cachexia. The prognosis of this disease seems to be worse than that of adenocarcinoma.