Isolated splenic metastasis from colon cancer

Solid-tumor metastases of the spleen are rare and usually associated with disseminated disease. There are only seven reports in literature of isolated splenic metastases from colorectal carcinoma, which generally metastasize to regional lymphonodes, liver and abdominal peritoneum. We report a case of isolated splenic metastasis in a 55-year-old woman who had undergone left hemicolectomy, lymphadenectomy and chemotherapy 18 months earlier for adenocarcinoma of the sigmoid colon with positive pericolic and inter-aortocaval lymphonodes. This is the eighth documented case of isolated splenic metastasis from colon cancer. Previously reported cases of this type are reviewed along with the mechanism underlying neoplastic spread to the spleen.