Isolated splenic metastasis from colorectal carcinoma: A case report

Isolated splenic metastasis arising from colorectal carcinoma is very rare and there has been only 6 cases reported in the English literature. A new c ase is presented, and its possible pathogenesis was considered with previou sly reported cases. A 65-year-old male patient had received a right hemicol ectomy for ascending colon cancer 36 months earlier. I-le was followed up r egularly with serial measurement of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), R ising serum CEA was discovered from 33 months postoperatively and CT reveal ed an isolated splenic metastasis. He therefore underwent splenectomy, whic h was proven to be a metastatic adenocarcinoma with similar histological fe ature to the original tumor. As all reported cases showed elevated serum CE A at the time of metastasis, isolated splenic metastasis might be associate d with CEA in regard to its biological functions of immunosuppression and a dhesion.