Successful resection of a solitary metastatic liver tumor from prostate cancer 15 years after radical prostatectomy: a case report

BACKGROUND: A solitary metastatic liver tumor of prostate cancer is extremely rare because liver metastasis occurs as a part of systemic dissemination of prostate cancer. We herein report a successfully resected case of a solitary metastatic liver tumor from prostate cancer almost 15 years after radical prostatectomy. CASE PRESENTATION: A 70-year-old male who had undergone radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer 15 years previously presented to our hospital for treatment of a liver tumor. Serum prostate-specific antigen was elevated at 13.77 ng/ml. Abdominal computed tomography revealed a solitary tumor with a diameter of 54 mm in segment 4 of the liver. No metastatic lesions were found in other organs. The patient was given a diagnosis of a metastatic liver tumor from prostate cancer, and he underwent medial segmentectomy. Microscopically, the resected specimen was composed of eosinophilic tumor cells with oval nuclei and prominent nucleoli, which exhibited a cribriform pattern and a fused glands pattern with positive prostate-specific antigen and prostatic acid phosphatase staining; these findings were compatible with metastatic prostate cancer. Other than portal thrombosis that required anticoagulation, the patient made a satisfactory recovery and was discharged on postoperative day 15. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing successful resection of a solitary metastatic liver tumor from prostate cancer in the medical literature. In such a rare circumstance, hepatic resection for liver metastasis of prostate cancer seems justified.