Metastatic pulmonary adenocarcinoma after 20 years of primary pancreatic adenocarcinoma resection: A case report and literature review

• Published in: Annals of medicine and surgery 2022-08, Vol.80, p.104150, Article 104150
• Main Authors: Dukmak, Osama N., Zeer, Almotazbellah, Al mohtasib, Mohammad Eid, Asbeh, Yousef Abu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: CA19-9; Case Report; Late recurrence; Pancreatic adenocarcinoma; Pulmonary metastasis
• ISSN: 2049-0801; 2049-0801
• DOI: 10.1016/j.amsu.2022.104150

Recurrency of Pancreatic adenocarcinoma after resection can be as high as 85%. Most of the recurrences happen within two years of pancreatic resection and may be local or present as a metastatic disease. Herein, we report a patient who presented with metastatic pulmonary adenocarcinoma after 20 years of curative resection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Histopathology of the pulmonary mass confirms the diagnosis as a metastatic adenocarcinoma of gastrointestinal origin. Despite the length of the disease-free period, lung metastasis of pancreatic cancer is the most likely diagnosis according to the clinical course, histopathology and biochemical tumor marker. Tumor marker Ca19-9 is very sensitive and reliable test to detect recurrency of pancreatic cancer even if the imaging modalities cannot detect the tumor. •Recurrency of Pancreatic adenocarcinoma after resection can be as high as 85%.•Most of the recurrences happen within two years of pancreatic resection but recurrence may occur even after 20 years.•Tumor marker Ca19-9 is very sensitive and reliable test to detect recurrency of pancreatic cancer.•In patients with an isolated pulmonary metastasis overall survival range between 23 months and 92.3 month.