Surgical treatment of pancreatic metastases of renal cell carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
The pancreas is an unusual site for metastases of renal cell carcinoma origin, sometimes occurring many years after nephrectomy. We herein present two cases of pancreatic metastases of renal cell carcinoma which occurred 17 and 19 years after the primary diagnosis.


METHODS
In the first case, metastases were found in the head of the pancreas, upper right arm and the right lobe of the thyroid gland. In the second case, a tumor was found in the tail of the pancreas and a remnant of the right kidney. This was the third recurrence of the original tumor after an initial left nephrectomy and two subsequent partial right nephrectomies in the past. Treatment in the first case consisted of excision of the tumor in the upper right arm, a Whipple operation, and a thyroidectomy. In the second case, a distal pancreatectomy and remnant right nephrectomy were undertaken. Both patients recovered from the operations without complications and remain free of tumor in follow-up periods of 54 and 8 months respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Resection of renal cell carcinoma metastases involving the pancreas provides satisfactory long-term survival, and should be undertaken whenever possible.
Sotiropoulos
Georgios C
GC
Department of General Surgery and Transplantation, University Hospital Essen, Germany. georgios.sotiropoulos@uni-essen.de
Lang
Hauke
H
Liu
Chao
C
Brokalaki
Eirini I
EI
Molmenti
Ernesto
E
Broelsch
Christoph E
CE
D000368:Aged; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery*; D017481:Receptors, Somatostatin / Q000032:analysis; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D017481:Receptors, Somatostatin