Renal cell carcinoma metastatic to the pancreas: a single-institution series and review of the literature.
OBJECTIVE
To present a series of 5 patients with solitary metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) to the pancreas after radical nephrectomy at our institution and review the published reports of this rare event.


METHODS
A retrospective review of the records of 5 patients with histologically confirmed RCC metastatic to the pancreas after radical nephrectomy was performed. A total of 5 patients (4 men, 1 woman) with a median age of 56 years (range 54 to 68) underwent radical nephrectomy for primary RCC. The pathologic stage was Robson I (n = 3) or Robson III (n = 2), with a left-sided tumor occurring in 3 patients and a right-sided tumor in 2 patients. The median interval from nephrectomy to the diagnosis of the pancreatic metastasis was 12 years (range 4 to 15). All patients were symptomatic at presentation, including weight loss (n = 3), abdominal pain (n = 3), early satiety (n = 1), steatorrhea (n = 1), and/or hemosuccus pancreaticus (n = 1).


RESULTS
All pancreatic metastases were hypervascular on imaging studies, and surgical removal was accomplished by pancreaticoduodenectomy (n = 3), partial pancreatectomy (n = 1), or subtotal pancreatectomy (n = 1). One patient died of disseminated disease 12 months after pancreatic resection. Two other patients had recurrences in the lung (n = 1) at 5 months or the pancreas/liver (n = 1) at 48 months. Both of these patients underwent a second resection and were disease free at 2 and 12 months afterward. The two remaining patients were disease free at 7 and 24 months after pancreatic resection.


CONCLUSIONS
RCC is an unpredictable tumor that may demonstrate very late metastases even from early-stage lesions. Aggressive surgical management of isolated pancreatic lesions offers a chance of long-term survival.
Kassabian
A
A
Department of Urology, LAC-University of Southern California Medical Center, Los Angeles, California 90033, USA.
Stein
J
J
Jabbour
N
N
Parsa
K
K
Skinner
D
D
Parekh
D
D
Cosenza
C
C
Selby
R
R
D000368:Aged; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009392:Nephrectomy; D010180:Pancreatectomy; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed