Solitary renal metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma mimicking primary renal neoplasm – A case report and literature review

Abstract

Solitary renal metastasis of esophageal cancer is rare clinically, with only 14 cases being reported in the literature. The authors here report a case of a 53-year-old man with a metachronous hypopharyngeal and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who developed a solitary renal metastasis after complete chemoradiotherapy for esophageal cancer, and subsequently received a left nephrectomy. The metastatic esophageal cancer was indistinguishable from primary renal neoplasm in the computed tomography but showed the histopathologic characteristic of esophageal cancer in directly invading the renal artery, and the tumor spreading in the kidney. The patient died of pneumonia two months after diagnosis. Among the previous 14 reported cases, 12 occurred in Asians, and their overall survival time ranges from two months to nine years after nephrectomy, either with or without adjuvant chemotherapy. Accordingly, a solitary renal mass in patients with a history of esophageal cancer is warranted to differentiate metastatic esophageal cancer from primary renal neoplasm, and a reliable therapy needs to be planned early for improving the patient’s chance of survival.

Prognostic factors affecting long-term outcomes in patients with brain metastasis from esophageal carcinoma

“…Gastric metastasis from EC is very rare, with an incidence of 1%−4.58% in clinical practice, and is often found accidentally during autopsy or surgery ( 14 ). Renal metastasis from EC is also rare, with an overall survival of 2 months to 9 years after nephrectomy with or without adjuvant chemotherapy ( 15 ). Studies have shown that the incidence of bone metastases from EC is 2%−6%, with a mean survival time of 4 months after the first detection of sclerosing lesions ( 16 ).…”

Renal metastases from esophageal cancer and retroperitoneal lymphoma detected via chromosome duplications identified by fluorescence in situ hybridization in urine exfoliated cells

“…Previous findings showed that squamous cell carcinoma is more likely to metastasize to the kidney than to other locations. [ 8 ] Metastases of esophageal cancer to the kidney are considered to be very rare, especially unilateral isolated renal metastases. [ 9 ] Upon imaging, it is difficult to distinguish whether the tumor represents primary renal pelvis transitional cell carcinoma or metastatic renal pelvis carcinoma because both diseases show infiltrative growth into the renal parenchyma and multiple protrusions into the renal tissue, and some cases are accompanied by invasion of the perirenal fat or perirenal tissue.…”

Esophageal Cancer with Solitary Renal Metastasis Treated with Multidisciplinary Therapy: A Case Report and Mini Review of the Literature

“…The present case in addition to the other 11 previously reported cases of esophageal cancer with renal metastasis and their treatment are briefly summarized in Table 1. 8,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Some cases had undergone surgical treatment because the differentiation between metastasis and primary renal tumor was difficult. Others were treated with surgical resection followed by chemotherapy and showed longer survival than those received surgical treatment alone, although this difference was not statically significant.…”