Potentially curative resection of an abdominal wall metastasis from pancreatic adenocarcinoma: a case report

Pancreatic cancer has a low survival rate even after ostensible complete resection, and treatment for recurrence is usually only palliative. However, rare solitary metastasis can occur and may be operable. In this report, we describe such a case and review the literature on metastasectomy for pancreatic adenocarcinoma. A 66-year-old female underwent Whipple procedure at our institution in 2014 for a pT3N0 pancreatic adenocarcinoma. A slowly growing umbilical mass was noted 6 years later with concomitant rise in her CA 19-9 levels. CT-guided biopsy of her abdominal wall mass confirmed a well-differentiated adenocarcinoma consistent with her primary pancreatic cancer. The patient underwent metastasectomy of the isolated abdominal wall mass, with negative margins. She received no further postoperative treatment. The patient remains disease and symptom-free over 18 months after resection of the metastasis. In highly selected cases of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, resection of solitary metastasis may be therapeutic.