Facial Cutaneous Metastasis in Renal Cell Carcinoma

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a common genitourinary malignancy of increasing incidence and significant mortality rate. Skin metastases of RCC are considered a rare phenomenon of unfavorable outcomes. We present a 75-year-old male patient who developed a rapidly evolving lesion on his left cheek four years after undergoing a right radical nephrectomy for non-metastatic RCC. Immunohistochemistry of the skin lesion was diagnostic for cutaneous metastasis of renal clear cell carcinoma, which eventually led to the detection of internal malignancy recurrence by positron emission tomography. A new facial skin lesion may unmask the underlying recurrence of RCC.