Metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of spleen: a case report

Metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of spleen is a very rare occurrence and a very small number of cases have been reported so far, mostly in autopsy series. More commonly observed metastasis to the spleen are from breast, lungs, colorectal organs and ovaries. Interestingly enough the spleen is very unusual site of metastasis from an esophageal malignancy, only very few cases (four cases up to 2005) being reported in the literature. A case of splenic metastasis from carcinoma of the esophagus in a 60 years old woman is presented in this report. Extraordinary merit of this case is that carcinoma of the esophagus was diagnosed after the patient had been operated for splenic abscess and was histologically diagnosed as metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of spleen. The patient underwent splenectomy and recovered well. Only during post operative period endoscopic examination of upper GIT with biopsy revealed carcinoma of the esophagus. Further investigations failed to delineate any other organ involvement. So, this case is being reported as metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of spleen from carcinoma of esophagus.