Small bowel metastasis from primary neuroendocrine small cell lung carcinoma

Small bowel metastases from a primary lung carcinoma are rare. We report a case of a 76-year-old male with a primary neuroendocrine small cell carcinoma of the lung, treated by chemotherapy, who developed fever and bowel symptoms (subocclusion and pain). On CT examination, he was found to have a tumour in the small bowel. The patient then underwent abdominal surgery. At operation we found small bowel occlusion by neoplasia and we therefore resected 15 cm of ileum with a side-to-side anastomosis. Early recognition of this rare condition is important due to the fact that complicated intestinal metastases from lung carcinoma can lead to high mortality rates and poor short-term outcomes. With advances in chemotherapy and palliative care, patients with metastatic lung carcinoma can sometimes survive more than a year with a reasonable quality of life.