Delayed antemortem diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the cecum presenting as lower extremity gas gangrene.

The rare entity of nontraumatic metastatic gas gangrene is commonly associated with occult gastrointestinal malignancies. Normally the patient's course is fulminant, with rapid demise prior to ascertaining the correct etiology at autopsy. An unusual case is presented in that 65 days following hip disarticulation for gas gangrene the diagnosis of colonic cancer was appropriately suspected and then proven.