Extraordinary disease-free survival in a rare malignant extrarenal rhabdoid tumor: a case report and review of the literature

BACKGROUND: Malignant extrarenal rhabdoid tumor of the gastrointestinal tract is rarely reported in the literature. It is characterized by poor prognosis and aggressive metastatic features. A literature review evidenced only 19 cases, with poor outcome. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of a colonic “pure” malignant extrarenal rhabdoid tumor with metastatic nodes in a 65-year-old Caucasian man. He was treated surgically with no recurrence, no adjuvant chemotherapy, and with 4-year survival without disease at the time of the submission of this article. CONCLUSIONS: We present an extraordinary case of long-term survival due to the extended surgical treatment. We believe that the absence of organ metastasis at presentation is a positive prognostic factor, although pathology confirmed node involvement (13/38 positive) on microscopy.