Metachronous solitary splenic metastasis arising from early gastric cancer: a case report and literature review

BACKGROUND: The metastasis of malignant tumors to the spleen is rare, and only a small percentage of cases can be treated surgically, as splenic metastases generally occur in the context of multivisceral metastatic cancer at a terminal stage. We report a rare case of metachronous solitary splenic metastasis arising from early gastric cancer. CASE PRESENTATION: A 75-year-old man was initially referred to our hospital for examination of gastric cancer, diagnosed at a medical check-up. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy showed a slightly elevated lesion with a central irregular depression in the upper-third of the stomach. Biopsy specimens of the lesion showed a moderately-differentiated adenocarcinoma, and abdominal computed tomography showed no evidence of distant metastases. Endoscopic submucosal dissection was performed, with histological confirmation of a moderately-differentiated adenocarcinoma invading the submucosal layer. The patient subsequently underwent laparoscopic total gastrectomy with regional lymph node dissection, resulting in no residual carcinoma and no lymph node metastasis. Computed tomography, 28 months later, showed a well-defined mass measuring 4.2 cm in diameter in the spleen, and the patient underwent a splenectomy, since there was no evidence of further metastatic lesions in any other organs. Histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of a poorly-differentiated adenocarcinoma originating from the previous gastric cancer. The patient was alive 2 months after surgical resection of the splenic metastasis without any recurrence. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this is only the second case of a solitary splenic metastasis from early gastric cancer to be reported in the English literature. The present case suggests surgical resection may be the preferred treatment of choice for patients with a solitary splenic metastasis from gastric cancer.