Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Detected by Postprandial Abdominal Pain: A Case Report

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC), a prevalent malignancy in China, manifests annually in excess of 70 000 instances. At initial diagnosis, approximately one-tenth of these patients present with metastatic disease. The predominant sites for distant dissemination encompass pulmonary, osseous, hepatic, and adrenal regions, whereas gastric involvement remains exceedingly rare. We clinically characterized a case by postprandially abdominal discomfort, which was endoscopic-biopsy confirmed as a gastric tumor, and further diagnosis revealed the primary malignancy was kidney-originated.

A 68-year-old male was admitted to our hospital for the evaluation of persistent postprandial abdominal pain and diarrhea that had persisted for 1 month. Gastroscopy revealed a gastric body tumor, leading to the performance of an endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). The initial pathological examination identified the tumor as gastric malignancy of undetermined origin. Concurrently, a comprehensive abdominal CT scan detected an additional renal tumor. Subsequent radical nephrectomy of the right kidney was performed, and the pathology confirmed the renal cell carcinoma shared the same origin as the gastric lesion. Over a follow-up period of 38 months postoperatively, there has been no evidence of tumor recurrence or progression.

Renal cell carcinoma has the potential to metastasize to the stomach, albeit this occurrence is not readily detectable in clinical practice unless it manifests as gastric symptoms. In instances where solitary superficial gastric metastasis is identified, aggressive surgical intervention can yield satisfactory clinical outcomes.