Objective  To investigate the clinicopathological features of colon cancer with anterior abdominal wall abscess as the first symptom.

  Methods  We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of a patient with colon cancer with anterior abdominal abscess as the first symptom and reviewed 16 relevant articles to explore the clinicopathological features of this disease.

  Results  The clinicopathological features of colon cancer with anterior abdominal wall abscess as the first symptom are as follows: the disease affects both men and women equivalently and is highly prevalent in older age groups; lesions can occur in the whole colon, but most of them occur in the right colon; significance of computed tomography and colonoscopy in the early stage should be emphasized; mucinous adenocarcinoma and middle- or well-differentiated adenocarcinoma are the primary histological types; lesions are slow growing and usually spread by direct invasion and rarely cause lymph node and other distant metastases; and the anterior abdominal wall abscess is apt to form once the lesions are complicated with bacterial infections.

  Conclusions  En bloc excision of the full-thickness anterior abdominal wall, including the abscess and colon cancer, may be the most appropriate curative procedure, making the lesions potentially curable.