Endotracheal metastases from colon adenocarcinoma

Endotracheal metastases (ETM) from non-lung cancer are seldom seen. Their main clinical symptoms are cough, haemoptysis and dyspnoea, although occasionally an incidental finding is made during a bronchoscopy. Breast, colon and kidney adenocarcinoma might be associated with ETM, lung cancer being the most frequent cause. Its finding is associated with advanced disease but survival will depend on the primary origin, patient status and comorbidity. Therefore, treatment should be individual for each patient. In our centre we recommend pre-surgery bronchoscopy to exclude metastatic endotracheal lesions in patients with metastatic colon adenocarcinoma disease, as this might affect the final outcome and therefore management of the disease.