Patterns of pancreatic metastasis from lung cancer.

BACKGROUND

Metastatic involvement of the pancrease is not an uncommon autopsy finding, however, pancreatic metastasis is an infrequent clinical condition and the pattern of the metastases have not been studied. We conducted a retrospective study in order to evaluate the pattern of the metastasis from lung cancer.

PATIENTS

From 1976 to 1997, 26 patients with pancreatic metastasis were identified by searching the medical records of 850 patients with lung cancer.

RESULTS

The usual pattern of pancreatic metastasis involved a solitary nodule in 19 patients (73.1%); multiple nodules in 3(11.5%), and diffuse swelling in 4(15.4%). Nineteen(73.1%) and 18(69.2%) of 26 patients had liver and adrenal gland metastases, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Pancreatic metastasis represents a common site of extrathoracic spread of disease for the small number of patients with advanced lung cancer, especially in small cell lung cancer. The usual pattern of the metastasis is a solitary nodule. In order to diagnose exactly, abdominal CT scan would be helpful in such metastasis.