Metastasis to Skeletal Muscle of Pancreatic Cancer with Pancreatectomy 8 years Ago: A Case Report

Naoshi Kubo, Nobuya Yamada, Tamahiro Nishihara, Bunzo Nakata, Tetuji Sawada, Masaichi Ohira, Yuji Nishino and Kosei Hirakawa

Department of Surgical Oncology, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine

Skeletal muscle metastasis of pancreatic cancer is very rare and only 3 cases have been reported in Japanese literature. We reported a case of metastasis to the quadriceps femoris muscle after resection for pancreatic cancer 8 years earlier. A 66-year-old man underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy with portal vein excision in December 1993 due to pancreatic head cancer. In May 2002 he noticed a painful, 3×2 cm tumor in the right femoral region. Based on a diagnosis of recurrent pancreatic cancer in the skeletal muscle because tumor markers such as CA19-9 and SPan1 had increased, we excised the tumor under local anesthesia. The tumor was well- differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma in the collagenous tissue. The man suffered lung metastasis 6 months later and died in February 2004, 11 years and 2 months after primary pancreatic tumor excision. Metastatic tumor must thus be considered when a skeletal muscle tumor is seen in a patient with a history with pancreatic carcinoma.

Key words
pancreatic cancer, skeletal muscle metastasis

Reprint requests
Naoshi Kubo Department of Surgical Oncology, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine
1-4-3 Asahi-machi, Abeno-ku, Osaka, 545-8585 JAPAN

Accepted
September 28, 2005

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