Patient: Male, 50-year-old
Final Diagnosis: Disseminated intravascular coagulatio • gastric cancer
Symptoms: Paralysis
Medication: —
Clinical Procedure: —
Specialty: Oncology
Objective:
Rare disease
Background:
Alpha-fetoprotein-producing gastric carcinoma (AFPGC) is a rare but aggressive cancer with a poor prognosis. Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is usually associated with several tumors, including gastric cancer, but only a few cases have been reported in patients with AFPGC. This report describes a case of advanced-stage AFPGC associated with DIC in a 50-year-old White man.
Case Report:
A 50-year-old, White, non-smoker man was hospitalized for a recent left hemiparesis associated with anorexia and loss of weigh. Clinically, we had multiple, hard, irregular, subcutaneous nodules, left supraclavicular lymph nodes, and a left, complete hemiparesis. Laboratory tests showed a DIC. A whole-body CT scan documented multiple lymph node, liver, subcutaneous, bone, and muscular metastases, a right femoral venous thrombosis, a left popliteal arterial thrombosis, and splenic and renal infarcts. The patient underwent an excisional biopsy of a subcutaneous lesion. Histology and immunohistochemistry confirmed the diagnosis of a metastasis from a high-grade AFPGC. Before starting any systemic treatment, the patient presented a massive intraventricular brain hemorrhage, quickly leading to his death.
Conclusions:
We report a case of metastatic AFPGC associated with a DIC and multiple venous and arterial thromboses resulting in a fatal intracerebral hemorrhage. AFPGC is a distinctive and very difficult to diagnose tumor showing aggressive behavior and poor prognosis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.