Acute arterial tumor embolism is a rare complication in cancer patients. Most of the previously reported cases of arterial tumor embolism have been associated with pulmonary malignancies and occurred during the intraoperative and postoperative periods. Very few cases occurred spontaneously. To our knowledge, there is no previous report of spontaneous and massive tumor embolism occluding the abdominal aorta in patients suffering from primary pulmonary carcinoma. We describe the case of 64-year-old man who presented with left homonymous hemianopsia and backache. Further evaluation revealed a mass in the right lung, severe coagulopathy, and cerebral hemorrhagic infarction in the right occipital lobe. He suddenly developed lower limb ischemia 4 weeks after his first clinical visit, and finally, died of multiple organ failure. Autopsy showed non-keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma in the right lung and massive tumor emboli in the abdominal aorta containing nests of squamous cell carcinoma. Infarct regions were found in the bilateral kidneys, spleen, liver, and brain; fibrin thrombi, but not tumor emboli, were found in these regions. This case suggested that tumor embolism should be considered when patients suffering from primary pulmonary malignancies develop arterial embolism and arterial tumor emboli could be massive enough to occlude the abdominal aorta.
Keywords: arterial tumor embolism; hypercoagulability; pulmonary carcinoma; squamous cell carcinoma.
© 2017 Japanese Society of Pathology and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.