Solitary metastasis to the skin and colon from gastric cancer after curative gastrectomy and chemotherapy: A case report

RATIONALE: Gastric cancer usually spread via blood circulation to liver, lung, bone, and kidney after recurrence, but it is extremely rare in clinical practice that gastric carcinoma metastasizes to the skin and colon without metastasis to common sites like liver or lung. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 57-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with altered bowel habit and hematochezia for 2 weeks. DIAGNOSES: The patient was diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer at stage IIIA (pT3N2M0) two and a half years ago. Cutaneous metastasis from gastric cancer was confirmed by cutaneous biopsy 2 years following curative gastrectomy. Unfortunately, colonic metastasis from gastric cancer was found by PET-CT 6 months after the diagnosis of cutaneous metastasis. INTERVENTIONS: The patient was given chemotherapy with docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil for the skin metastasis. Right hemicolectomy was performed when the malignant tumor of the colon was found, in order to relieve the symptom, and improve the quality of life. OUTCOMES: The patient was treated with chemoradiotherapy in a local hospital, the peritoneal carcinomatosis occurred 5 months after the second operation, and died 9 months after the diagnosis of colonic metastasis. LESSONS: Our case represents a rare condition that solitary cutaneous and colonic metastasis from gastric cancer can occur after surgical resection and systemic chemotherapy. Its unique clinicopathological features can extend our insights on gastric cancer, and it may provide clinicians with some positive clinical experience for identifying and treating this disease.