Splenic metastasis of lung cancer

Splenic metastasis from a lung cancer is infrequently noted, however, the pattern of the metastasis has not been studied, thus we conducted a retrospective study. Twelve of the consecutive 997 patients with lung cancer, who were admitted to our division, developed splenic metastasis. The pattern of splenic metastasis involved solitary nodule in 7 patients (58.3%); multiple nodules in 4, and microscopic metastasis in 1. All of the 12 patients had other abdominal organ metastasis. Splenic mass accompanying metastasis to other abdominal organs in a patient with a known lung cancer should be regarded as a metastasis.