title: Adrenal metastasis from rectal cancer: report of a case.
abstract: We report a case of heterochronic adrenal metastasis from colorectal carcinoma in a 51-year-old woman. A left adrenal metastasis was found by computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging 8 months after an anterior resection for advanced rectal carcinoma, and a left hepatectomy for a solitary liver metastasis. The level of serum carcinoembryonic antigen was still within the normal range. A left adrenalectomy was performed, and histopathological examination revealed adenocarcinoma, compatible with the rectal carcinoma resected 8 months earlier. The patient died of lung metastases 6 months after the adrenalectomy. A review of autopsy series in the world literature revealed that adrenal metastasis from colorectal cancer is not rare. Therefore, the possibility of adrenal metastasis should be considered in the follow-up of patients after primary surgery for colorectal cancer, even though the liver and lung are the main metastatic sites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Saitama Medical School, 38 Morohongo, Moroyama-machi, Iruma-gun, Saitama 350-0945, Japan.
authors.forename: Saburo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Murakami
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Terakado
authors.forename: Taiju
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Yoshitaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tsuji
authors.forename: Katsuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okubo
authors.forename: Renzo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hirayama
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D000310:Adrenal Gland Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D000315:Adrenalectomy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D008875:Middle Aged; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*