Malignant paraganglioma metachronously recurring at short duration in different paraganglions: Report of a case

We report the rare case of a 57-year-old man with retroperitoneal malignant paraganglioma, He was referred to our hospital complaining of left lower a bdominal dull pain. Computer tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging, a nd aortography showed a mass measuring 5 x 4 cm in size on the left side of the abdominal aorta below the renal artery. The resected tumor was confirm ed histologically to be malignant paraganglioma, Irradiation of the resecte d area was performed. Four months after the operation, an abdominal CT scan showed a 5.5 x 3.0 cm mass on the right side of the aorta below the diaphr agm. This tumor was thereafter also resected, Three months after the second operation, a soft subcutaneous nodule measuring 4.5 x 2.0 cm in size was p alpable above the left clavicle and was visible on a CT scan. A resection w as again performed. All tumors showed the same histological findings. This is the first case reported in the Japanese literature with such a short-ter m demonstration of multiple metachronous recurrences in different paragangl ions.