Gingival metastasis from a prostate adenocarcinoma: report of a case

Prostate cancer is the cause of 10% of cancer-related deaths in males in the United States. Metastases are found late in the course of the disease. Metastatic tumors of the oral cavity are rare, representing about 1% of oral tumors and affect jaws much more frequently than soft tissues. Metastatic prostate cancer tends to involve the bones of the axial skeleton. In a recent review, 22 cases of metastases to the jawbones from prostate cancer were found in 390 cases. On the other hand, only 1 case of a metastasis to the oral soft tissues was reported. The authors describe the second case of oral soft tissue metastasis from a prostate cancer. The metastatic lesion was located in the gingiva. Clinicians should be aware of oral soft tissue metastases since they can be the first sign of a not yet diagnosed malignant tumor and they can be very easily confused with several different benign lesions.