Metastatic tumor of the spermatic cord from gastric cancer：A case report and review of the literature

Abstract

Background: Gastric cancer is one of the most common carcinoma in the worldwide. Its common metastatic sites include liver, peritoneum, but metastasizing to male genital system including spermatic cord is very rare. Case presentation: we report a case of gastric cancer metastatic to right spermatic cord one year after radical gastrectomy, and histopathological examination revealed an adenocarcinoma. The resection of right inguinal tumor and orchiectomy was performed. Pathological analysis showed an adenocarcinoma which was consistent with the gastric primary tumor. Discussion: We searched a total of 47 cases of stomach cancer with metastasis to male genital system from several databases before December 2016. After statistical analyzing, we found that the average age of these patients was 57 years old, more than half (51.1%) of these patients are metastatic to right side of genital system, the most frequent metastatic site was spermatic cord, while the mechanisms of metastasis from primary malignant neoplasm was still unknown. The main histopathological type of metastatic carcinoma was adenocarcinoma (34 cases), and the prognosis of patients was really poor. Conclusions: Metastasis of male genital system from stomach cancer is rare so that it’s easy to be misdiagnosed. The clinician should collect medical history detailedly and consider the possibility of metastasis when receiving a patient with an inguinal or scrotal mass who has a history of gastrointestinal tract cancer.