[P. Metastasis of prostatic carcinoma to the epididymis]

When reviewing the bibliography of this rare metastatic location of cancer of the prostate gland, we have only been able to compile the observations published by HUMPHREY (1), BROTHERUS (2) and SMITH (3) wo describe cases with the same location and characteristics. All the observations of metastasis in the epididymis of cancer of the prostate gland constitute unexpected findings during the course of surgical castration operations. The morphology is always the same, small indurated nodules respecting the rest of the epididymis. On the other hand, metastases in the epididymis of extraurinary adenocarcinomas most of which were digestive, were not discovered until the increased size and pain in the testicle attracted the patient's attention and the exploration led to the identification of the tumour in the epidiymis (2, 4, 5). However, primitive malignant tumours of the epididymis constitute an infrequent lesion. In the literature there were found to be more primitive tumours in relation to the metastatic ones and it was difficult to establish the diagnosis of a primitive tumour of the epididymis without having previously ruled out the possibility of other distant neoplasias which are sometimes even asymptomatic.