A very rare case of renal cell carcinoma metastasis to spermatic cord and a condensed literature review

Ioannis Tsouknidas; Nikolaos Tasis; Charalambos Kokkinos; Helen Trihia; Dimitrios Filippou; Panagiotis Skandalakis; Theodoros Troupis

doi:10.1016/j.ijscr.2017.12.027

A very rare case of renal cell carcinoma metastasis to spermatic cord and a condensed literature review

Int J Surg Case Rep. 2018:53:508-512. doi: 10.1016/j.ijscr.2017.12.027. Epub 2017 Dec 26.

Authors

Ioannis Tsouknidas¹, Nikolaos Tasis², Charalambos Kokkinos³, Helen Trihia⁴, Dimitrios Filippou⁵, Panagiotis Skandalakis⁵, Theodoros Troupis⁵

Affiliations

¹ Naval and Veterans Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece; Department of Anatomy, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece. Electronic address: tsouknii@med.uoa.gr.
² Naval and Veterans Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece; Department of Anatomy, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
³ Metaxa Cancer Hospital of Piraeus, Athens, Greece; Department of Anatomy, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
⁴ Metaxa Cancer Hospital of Piraeus, Athens, Greece.
⁵ Department of Anatomy, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.

Abstract

Introduction: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is proved to be the ninth most common malignancy. Two-third of the patients suffering from RCC will present metastases. Secondary metastases of RCC to spermatic cord are very rare.

Presentation of case: In this report we present the case of a patient with renal cell carcinoma with metachronous metastasis to the spermatic cord occurring two years after the initial diagnosis of the disease.

Discussion: Our patient was treated according to EAU guidelines. The metastatic tumor was diagnosed accidentally, in contrast to the previous follow-up exams which show no disease in the meantime. Moreover, the histological examination of the spermartic cord tumor illustrated tumor thrombus. The former examination results along with the anatomical and embryological relations of renal and spermatic cord structures indicate a hypothesis about the mechanism of this metastasis' route.

Conclusion: Our case is of great interest, since such cases are very few in the international literature. Therefore the presentation of this case as well as its implications should be made to the global surgery community.

Keywords: Anatomical relations; Embryological; Histological examination; Metastasis; Renal cell carcinoma; Spermatic cord.