Metastasis to the pancreas and the spleen: an increasing diagnostic and therapeutic challenge

• Main Authors: Peter Wolfgang Vorwald, Sara Chaves Portela, Marta Abengózar Muela, M. Jesús Fernández-Aceñero
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2011-07-01
• Series: Clinics and Practice
• Subjects: metastasis, pancreas, spleen, metastasectomy, outcome.
• Online Access: http://www.clinicsandpractice.org/index.php/cp/article/view/90

We have reviewed the electronic biopsies database files of the Department of Surgical Pathology, Fundación Jiménez Díaz in Madrid (Spain). In this time period (1998-2010) we have found 3 pancreatic metastasis and 5 splenic metastasis. Two of the pancreatic metastases were originated in clear cell renal cell carcinomas. The last pancreatic metastasis was from a malignant cutaneous melanoma diagnosed and treated 8 years before. As for splenic metastasis, three of them were diagnosed during the abdominal surgery for primary therapy of the tumour (2 ovaries and one endometrium), while the remaining 2 corresponded to metastasis from a lung primary diagnosed 1 year before and a colonic primary diagnosed 6 years before. The patients with splenic metastasis died on the short term with progression of the disease despite resection of the splenic lesions, while the patients with pancreatic metastasis have survived longer.