Two Cases of Gastric metastasis from Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

This is a report of gastric metastases secondary from a primary small cell carcinoma of the lung in two men. Blood-borne metastatic involvement of the stomach by cancer is a rare entity. According to the reports in the literature the prevalence of metastasis to the stomach occurs in 0.4% and the most common cell type of the primary lung carcinoma is large cell type(3.7%) followed by adenocarcinoma(2.4%), small cell carcinoma(1.7%) and squamous cell carcinoma(0.7%). The most common tumors that spread to the stomach through the blood stream are malignant melanoma, breast carcinoma and lung carcinoma. Most of the gastrointestinal tract metastases had no specific symptoms because of its submucosal involvement. The prognosis was poor and the mean survival period from the onset of symptoms was 49 days. The first patient was a 56-year-old man who had primary lung carcinoma with brain metastasis. Gastroscopic findings showed two elevated mass lesions in the anterior wall of the mid body with central ulcer and the posterior wall of the fundus with intact surface mucosa. Pathologic examination of stomach tissue revealed small cell type tumor cells infiltrate in the stomach wall segmentally without destruction of the glands. The second patient was a 67-year-old man who had no other evidence of the distant metastasis. Gastroscopic findings showed a huge, oval shaped, ulcerofungating mass with deep penetrating central ulcer coated with dirty exudate in the anterior wall from mid to upper body of the stomach, and thickened elevated rugal folds in the posterior wall of the fundus. Pathologic examination of stomach tissues revealed the small cell type tumor cells showing small smudged nucleus infiltrate into the mucosa of the stomach and the architecture of mucosa intact. We report the two cases of metastatic gastric cancer from the primary small cell lung carcinoma with the literature review.