Colonic metastasis from primary carcinoma of the lung: report of a case and review of Japanese literature

Abstract

We report a rare case of colonic metastasis from primary carcinoma of the lung. A 59-year-old man who underwent pulmonary surgery for lung cancer was referred to our hospital in June 2007. The patient complained of abdominal pain, and barium enema examination at another hospital had demonstrated a descending colon tumor. Postoperative histopathological and immunohistochemical findings indicated that the tumor was a colonic metastasis of lung cancer. Three months postoperatively, the cancer had metastasized to the brain, and the patient underwent radiotherapy. He survived for more than 1 year after colonic surgery. Clinically apparent metastases from lung cancer to the colon are rare, and in the 50 Japanese cases retrospectively investigated here, the prognosis was poor.

Gastrointestinal metastasis of primary lung cancer: An analysis of 366�cases

“…The incidence of severe complications differed between organs due to differences in individual anatomical structures of the organs. Previous studies ( 129 , 132 , 139 ) reported that the incidence of perforation in the small intestine was markedly increased compared with the incidence in the colorectum. The present study indicated similar findings.…”

Bowel obstruction caused by colonic metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma: a case report and literature review

“…The pathological diagnosis in 20 of the 44 cases (45%) was squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC) [13, 17–35]. Twelve lung adenocarcinomas (27%) and five small cell lung carcinomas (SCC, 11%) were confirmed as primary origins [5, 10, 36–44, 46–49, 52]. Large-cell carcinoma of the lung was reported in three cases (7%) [10, 50, 51].…”

“…SqCC had a higher propensity for colonic metastasis [13, 17–35]. Lung adenocarcinoma had the second highest potential for colonic metastasis [10, 36–44, 52]. Abdominal pain due to intestinal tract obstruction was the most frequent initial clinical symptom of metastatic colon cancer from primary malignant lung neoplasms [19, 25, 29, 32, 33, 37, 38, 40, 43, 44, 52, 53].…”

“…Lung adenocarcinoma had the second highest potential for colonic metastasis [10, 36–44, 52]. Abdominal pain due to intestinal tract obstruction was the most frequent initial clinical symptom of metastatic colon cancer from primary malignant lung neoplasms [19, 25, 29, 32, 33, 37, 38, 40, 43, 44, 52, 53]. Bloody stool due to either melena or hematochezia was also a common chief complaint [5, 10, 17, 31, 35, 48, 56].…”

“…However, the range of survival after the diagnosis of colonic metastasis from primary lung carcinoma has been found to vary greatly [5, 7–14, 17–57]. Outcomes are based on chief complaints at the time of initial presentation and subsequent surgical intervention [5, 6, 11, 14, 15, 52, 53]. Perforation, obstruction, or hemorrhage have been associated with less favorable outcomes [6, 11, 19, 22, 48, 52, 53].…”