A case of an abdominal wall cystic urachal carcinoma in an unusual location

Abstract

A solitary cystic lesion in the abdominal wall is generally benign, such as an omental cyst, mesenteric cyst, enteric duplication cyst, cystic mesothelioma, or skin appendage tumor. Furthermore, most malignancies in the urachal remnant are intraperitoneal lesions, and generally develop on the anterior aspect of the bladder dome. Moreover, most urachal glandular malignant neoplasms are the mucinous cystic type. We report a cystic urachal adenocarcinoma that presented as an abdominal wall cystic lesion. A 42-year-old woman was admitted to Kangwon National University Hospital for a 5-cm palpable abdominal wall mass. Conservative surgical excision was performed with subsequent histological and immunohistochemical evaluations, but only a few non-mucinous invasive glands and finger-like growths were noted. During a 2-year period, the tumor recurred several times along the urachal tract and metastasized to the regional lymph nodes. Despite receiving chemotherapy, the patient died 2 years after the first surgery.