Vol.97 No.5 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 97 No. 5 May 2004
Recurrent Head and Neck Metastases of
Renal Cell Carcinoma
Tomoki Yoshizaki, Yutaka Honma and Naoki Hatayama
(Asahikawa Kosei Hospital)
Satoshi Nonaka and Yasuaki Harabuchi
(Asahikawa Medical College)
Renal cell carcinoma can metastasize to any part of the body, and recurrences and/or metastases of this tumor are often found after a long interval from the initial therapy. We report a case of renal cell carcinoma that metastasized to head and neck regions four times in 12 years after nephrectomy was performed.
The patient was a 64-year-old female with left renal cell carcinoma for which left nephrectomy was carried out in April 1991. Two years later, in 1993, metastases were found in the cranial dermis and frontal bone, and were surgically removed. Similarly, metastases were found in the lymph nodes at the left parotid grand and in the left neck lymph nodes in 1994 and 2002, respectively. All of them could be surgically resected, and the patient is still alive without any metastases 12 years after left nephrectomy.
There is no effective chemotherapy for metastases of renal cell carcinoma, so surgical resection is the most effective therapy. Since the clinical course of renal cell carcinoma can be long as in our case, plural resection may not only improve the Q.O.L. of patients but also extend their survival. If the general condition of the patient is good, surgical resection can be attempted for treatment of metastases of renal cell carcinoma.
Key words : head and neck, metastasis, renal cell carcinoma