Zhang RY, Zhu SJ, Xue P, He SQ. Cutaneous metastasis from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(14): 4676-4683 [PMID: 35663085 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i14.4676]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Sheng-Qi He, MM, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Oncology, Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medicine Sciences, No. 6 South Central Road, Wangjing Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100102, China. heshengqi@sina.com
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. May 16, 2022; 10(14): 4676-4683 Published online May 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i14.4676
Cutaneous metastasis from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: A case report
Rui-Yan Zhang, Shi-Jie Zhu, Peng Xue, Sheng-Qi He
Rui-Yan Zhang, Shi-Jie Zhu, Peng Xue, Sheng-Qi He, Department of Oncology, Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medicine Sciences, Beijing 100102, China
Author contributions: Xue P and He SQ were the patient’s oncologists, reviewed the literature and contributed to manuscript drafting; Zhang RY interpreted the imaging and pathology pictures, reviewed the literature and contributed to manuscript drafting; Zhu SJ and He SQ were responsible for the revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; All authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Informed consent statement: Treatment consent has been obtained.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sheng-Qi He, MM, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Oncology, Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medicine Sciences, No. 6 South Central Road, Wangjing Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100102, China. heshengqi@sina.com
Received: November 27, 2021 Peer-review started: November 27, 2021 First decision: January 12, 2022 Revised: January 27, 2022 Accepted: March 16, 2022 Article in press: March 16, 2022 Published online: May 16, 2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Esophageal cancer is a common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Cutaneous metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is rare, particularly in diffuse skin metastasis.
CASE SUMMARY
In this case report, we describe an 82-year-old male who was diagnosed with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The tumor was staged as T4N3M1 (Stage IVB). The pathological findings revealed poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. Four months after diagnosis, the patient began chemotherapy, and symptoms were relieved after four cycles of chemotherapy. After that, the patient returned home without a systematic physical examination. One year after diagnosis, the patient realized that the skin of the abdominal wall was hard and rough without pain, and the color became darker than normal skin. Thirteen months after diagnosis, a biopsy of the patient’s abdominal lesion revealed that the skin metastasis was derived from the esophagus. Then the patient received two cycles of apatinib combined with docetaxel, but the abdominal lesion worsened. Two cycles of nivolumab were administered, but the patient eventually died of multiple organ failure.
CONCLUSION
This report highlights cutaneous metastasis as a late and untreatable metastasis of esophageal cancer.
Core Tip: Cutaneous metastasis from esophageal carcinoma is rare, especially esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. We present a patient with squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus and metastasis to diffuse cutaneous tissue. Second-line chemotherapy and immunological checkpoint inhibitor treatment were not effective, and this patient only achieved a 4-mo survival time after cutaneous metastasis.
