Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma to Pancreas: Case Series and Review of the Literature

Daniel Vasile Balaban; Laura Coman; Flavius Stefan Marin; Marina Balaban; Daniela Tabacelia; Florina Vasilescu; Raluca Simona Costache; Mariana Jinga

doi:10.3390/diagnostics13081368

Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma to Pancreas: Case Series and Review of the Literature

Diagnostics (Basel). 2023 Apr 7;13(8):1368. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics13081368.

Authors

Daniel Vasile Balaban^{1

2}, Laura Coman^{1

2}, Flavius Stefan Marin¹, Marina Balaban¹, Daniela Tabacelia³, Florina Vasilescu⁴, Raluca Simona Costache^{1

2}, Mariana Jinga^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 050474 Bucharest, Romania.
² Gastroenterology Department, Central Military Emergency University Hospital, 010825 Bucharest, Romania.
³ Gastroenterology Department, Saint Mary's Clinical Hospital, 011172 Bucharest, Romania.
⁴ Pathology Department, Central Military Emergency University Hospital, 010825 Bucharest, Romania.

Abstract

Metastasis to the pancreas represents a small proportion of all pancreatic malignancies. Among primary tumors that metastasize to the pancreas, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common causes of metastatic pancreatic lesions. We herein report a case series of three patients with pancreatic metastasis from RCC. The first is a 54-year-old male with a history of left nephrectomy for RCC, in whom an isthmic pancreatic mass suggestive of a neuroendocrine lesion was found during oncological follow-up. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided fine needle biopsy (FNB) identified pancreatic metastasis of RCC and the patient was referred for surgery. The second case is a 61-year-old male, hypertensive, diabetic, with left nephrectomy for RCC six years previously, who complained of weight loss and was found with a hyperenhancing mass in the head of the pancreas and a lesion with a similar pattern in the gallbladder. EUS-FNB from the pancreas proved to be a metastatic pancreatic lesion. Cholecystectomy and treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors were recommended. The third case is a 68-year-old dialysis patient referred for evaluation of a pancreatic mass, also confirmed by EUS-FNB, who was started on sunitinib treatment. We report a literature summary on epidemiology and clinical features, diagnosis and differential diagnosis and treatment and outcomes in pancreatic metastasis of RCC.

Keywords: hypervascular; metastasis; pancreas; renal cell carcinoma.

Publication types

Case Reports

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the European Research Executive Agency, under the project “TRAINING IN TRANSLATIONAL PROTOCOLS FOR MINIMAL INVASIVE DIAGNOSIS AND THERAPY IN PANCREATICO-BILIARY CANCERS”—TRIP (grant agreement number: 101079210).