A case of solitary metastatic pancreatic cancer from rectal carcinoma: a case report.

A 79 year-old male who had undergone resection of the rectum for rectal cancer was shown to have metastasis to the pancreas 11 years after surgery. The metastatic lesion was located at the tail and body of the pancreas, and was resected with distal pancreatectomy. The same patient also had metastasis to the lung 8 years after initial rectal surgery. Therefore, the course of metastasis to the pancreas was suggested to be from the metastatic lung tumor to the pancreas by hematogenous spread. The patient was considered disease-free 8 months after the pancreatectomy. Recent advances in the technology of diagnostic imaging have facilitated the selection of surgical therapy for metastasis to the pancreas in rectal cancer patients after follow-up by imaging diagnosis.