Calvarial metastasis of renal cell carcinoma

The calvarium is an extremely unusual site of metastasis of renal cell carcinoma. We report a 62-year-old man who was enrolled for palliative medical management for an exophytic calvarial metastasis. His quality of life was greatly compromised with everyday local care and bandages due to recurrent events of infection and bleeding, limiting his social life. Surgical palliative surgery was carried out to improve the patient's quality of life. After tumour resection, the resultant defects of the calvarium and the scalp were covered by a muscular latissimus dorsi free flap and a fascia lata graft as dural substitute. There was no evidence of local recurrence or distant metastasis during the 3 years follow-up. Consequently, resection of solitary metastasis in the early stage is the treatment of choice with a chance to cure the metastasis and avoid associated morbidity that may occur if the lesion is left untreated.