Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 14, 2016; 22(14): 3879-3884
Published online Apr 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i14.3879
Case of metachronous bilateral isolated adrenal metastasis from colorectal adenocarcinoma and review of the literature
Yu-Yi Liu, Zhi-Hui Chen, Er-Tao Zhai, Jie Yang, Jian-Bo Xu, Shi-Rong Cai, Wu Song
Yu-Yi Liu, Zhi-Hui Chen, Er-Tao Zhai, Jie Yang, Jian-Bo Xu, Shi-Rong Cai, Wu Song, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Liu YY and Song W designed the report; Chen ZH, Zhai ET and Yang J collected the patient’s clinical data; Xu JB, Cai SR and Liu YY analyzed the data and wrote the paper.
Supported by Grants from The Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong, No. S2013010015528.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the First Affiliated hospital, Sun Yat-sen University Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Wu Song, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhongshan Second Road 58, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China. songwu@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-20-28823350 Fax: +86-20-28823389
Received: August 26, 2015
Peer-review started: August 27, 2015
First decision: September 29, 2015
Revised: October 14, 2015
Accepted: December 30, 2015
Article in press: December 30, 2015
Published online: April 14, 2016
Abstract

Rarely has a solitary, metachronous bilateral adrenal metastasis of colorectal cancer been reported. We depict a 41-year-old man who underwent sigmoid colon cancer radical surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy for a locally ulcerative sigmoid adenocarcinoma with metachronous bilateral adrenal metastasis revealed by a computed tomography scan. Histopathological examination showed adenocarcinoma, compatible with metastasis from the rectal cancer. The level of serum carcinoembryonic antigen had indicative significance for the presence of adrenal metastasis in the reported series. We performed a literature analysis related to this pathological characteristic and attach importance to consistent, vigilant radiological surveillance of the adrenal glands in the patients’ follow up for colorectal cancer with or without subsequent adrenal metastasis.

Keywords: Adrenal gland, Bilateral, Colorectal cancer, Metastasis, Metachronous

Core tip: Very rarely are patients with a solitary adrenal metastasis from colorectal cancer, especially coupled with metachronous contralateral adrenal metastasis, identified. The case report not only covers a rare case of metachronous bilateral isolated adrenal metastasis from colorectal adenocarcinoma but also summarizes and discusses relevant mechanisms and therapies of this type of disease reported previously in the literature.