title: Simultaneous resection of pancreas and liver metastases from different metachronous primary cancers.
abstract: Resection of a pancreatic head tumor and partial resection of the liver for metastatic lesions were carried out simultaneously in a 72-year-old woman. The patient had a history of two previous operations, right nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma (clear cell type), done 14 years previously, and an Autincloss procedure for cancer of the left breast (solid tubular carcinoma); (T1N0M0; stage I) done 7 years previously. At the current presentation, preoperative radiographic examination showed a hypervascular tumor in each of the pancreatic and hepatic lesions, but with different patterns. On the basis of histological findings in the two resected specimens, it was difficult to establish whether the hepatic tumor originated from the renal cell carcinoma or the breast cancer, but postoperative immunohistochemical studies for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), estrogen receptors, and gross cystic disease fluid protein (GCDFP)-15 showed that the pancreatic tumor had metastasized from the renal cell carcinoma, and the liver tumor from the breast cancer. The immunohistochemical investigation of different markers thus proved to be useful in making the final diagnosis of metastatic lesions from different and metachronous cancers.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Surgery, The University of Tokushima, School of Medicine, 18-15 3 chome Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harada
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukuta
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horiuchi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ikawa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsumura
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Terashima
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hino
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Uehara
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tashiro
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery*