Shoulder arthritis as a lung metastatic carcinoma revealer. A case report

Joint metastasis is very rare. It usually presents as a monoarthritis. It is generally located in the knee and secondary to lung cancer. Prognosis is poor, with a mean survival term of less than six months. We report the case of a right shoulder joint metastasis from a bronchopulmonary squamous cell carcinoma in a 55-year-old male smoker. The patient presented with an atypical chronic post-traumatic arthritis, not improved by symptomatic treatment. The diagnosis was based on synovial biopsy performed during open surgery. The primitive lung cancer was confirmed by chest CT scan and bronchial biopsy.