Palatine tonsillar metastasis of rectal adenocarcinoma: a case report and literature review

Cases of primary colorectal adenocarcinoma metastasized to the palatine tonsil are extremely rare. To the best of our knowledge, only 10 cases have thus far been previously documented in the English literature. A 37-year-old Chinese woman presented with a right palatine tonsil swelling and odynophagia 5 months after a surgical resection of rectal adenocarcinoma was performed. The patient underwent a tonsillectomy, and a metastatic poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma from a colorectal origin was revealed by immunohistochemical analysis. The manner in which tonsillar metastases are involved remains unknown and should be further studied. Here, we report a new case, briefly summarize these 10 cases and review the literature.