Gastric metastasis in renal cell carcinoma: a case report and systematic review.

Background: Published report of cases of gastric metastases arising from renal cell carcinoma is a rare event and treatment of such patients can be difficult. Gastrectomy may be a surgical alternative; however, the prognosis for the majority of patients is very poor.

Methods: We report a rare case of a patient with a metastatic renal cell carcinoma that metastasized to the stomach. In addition, we conducted a systematic review of the literature to assess the prevalence of reports and to gain a greater understanding of this particular metastatic cancer spread from the kidney to the stomach.

Results: Published reports of metastases from the kidney to the stomach are not as rare as previously thought with three times of the number of reports found to what most authors thought actually existed. The majority of reports occurred among males (77%). The mean age of presentation was 65 years for males and 68 years for females (range, 40-84 years). Average time from nephrectomy to presentation of gastric metastases was 7 years for both males and females (range, 0-24 years).

Conclusion: Females with gastric metastases from the kidney are slightly older than males, and no difference exists between males and females in terms of the time interval between nephrectomy and subsequent metastasis or select patients treatment options.