A Case of Solitary Splenic Metastasis from Uterine Cervical Cancer

The prevalence of splenic metastasis from carcinomas varies between 4%and 7%in autopsy studies, but solitary metastasis to the spleen from a primary carcinoma of any source is uncommon. A 52-year-old woman, underwent a radical mastectomy for a carcinoma of the left breast in June 1987 and received surgery for a uterine cervical cancer in January 2001. In March 2002, an abdominal computed tomography examination re-vealed an ill-defined, low-density area with a diameter of 3cm in the spleen;this finding was thought to show a metastatic tumor. The patient underwent a splenectomy in April 2002. The histopathological findings of the splenic tumor was squamous cell carcinoma, which was compatible with a secondary focus. Since no other metastases or signs of recurrence were observed, we diagnosed the lesion as a solitary splenic metastasis. The patient is presently alive and has been disease-free for 12 months. Only twelve cases of solitary splenic metas-tasis from uterine cancer have been reported;in 4 of these reports, the source was uterine cervical cancer. Since long-term survival has been reported, surgery should be selected as an aggressive and positive treatment.