Rectal neuroendocrine tumor with extracapsular lymph node metastasis: a case report

The presence of extramural tumor deposits without lymph node structure (EX) is an important prognostic factor in patients with colorectal carcinoma. However, there is no English literature on neuroendocrine tumor (NET) with EX. We report a patient with rectal NET with extracapsular metastasis of a regional lymph node that was considered to be EX. A 51-year-old Japanese woman with diabetes was referred to our hospital for further examination of a submucosal tumor in the lower rectum. She was diagnosed as having rectal NET by immunohistochemical analysis of a biopsy, and underwent laparoscopic low anterior resection with lymph node dissection and covering ileostomy. Pathological findings of the resected specimen showed that the primary tumor was NET-G1 without any lymphatic or venous invasion. A single metastatic deposit was found near the capsule of a NET-negative regional lymph node. She has been free from recurrence for nine months without adjuvant treatments. Extracapsular metastasis of NET on a dissected lymph node in our case was considered to correspond to EX as defined for colorectal carcinoma. This rare case suggests that NET can disseminate to form EX in a similar manner to colorectal carcinoma.