Intraparotid metastasis from lung adenocarcinoma diagnosed by FNAC—Report of a rare case

Abstract

Metastasis to the parotid gland accounts for 10%‐16% of parotid malignancies. Head and neck malignancies constitute the major bulk of metastatic lesions to the parotid. The other common primaries include the breast, kidney, lung, and prostate. Metastasis from the lung to the parotid is a relatively rare occurrence whose exact percentage is not known. Though intralymphatic spread into the parotid is known, intraparenchymal spread through hematogenous route is rare. The presence of intraparenchymal spread of lung Adenocarcinoma to the contralateral parotid diagnosed on fine needle aspiration (FNA) makes it a case worth reporting, highlighting the utility of cell block preparation and immunohistochemistry for a precise and early diagnosis.

Parotid metastases from primary lung cancer: Case series and systematic review of the features

“…As shown in Tables 1 , 2 , this disease seemed more likely to occur in elderly smoking men in general, which was consistent with the prone crowd of lung cancer ( 32 ). Most patients with parotid metastasis of lung cancer had no obvious pulmonary symptoms ( 5 , 12 – 15 , 21 – 23 , 25 , 27 ). The initial clinical manifestation was always a rapidly expanding parotid gland mass, with or without pain, but usually did not invade the skin, sometimes accompanied by facial paralysis, suggesting no specificity.…”

“…Ultimately, 20 articles comprising 20 patients were selected for our study (the detailed filtering process is shown in Figure 3). Adding the three patients discovered at our institution, for a total of 23 [Table 1 (5,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)]. Among the 23 patients, 19 (83%) were males, and 4 (17%) were females.…”