Carcinoma of the Pancreas Presenting as an Orbital Tumor

Abstract

Metastasis to the orbit from pancreatic adenocarcinoma is rare. A 38-year-old man with metastatic adenocarcinoma of the right orbit at initial examination is described. Two months later he was diagnosed with a pancreatic primary tumor. The incidence and pattern of orbital metastasis in carcinomas is briefly discussed.

Orbital metastatic small cell carcinoma of the pancreas with optic nerve compression

“…3 Review of prior reports of orbital pancreatic metastasis shows that the majority of cases are due to pancreatic adenocarcinoma, with 1 case of pancreatic islet cell carcinoma. [5][6][7] Recently, a retrospective analysis of over 30 million records in the National Cancer Database from 1998 to 2011 yielded a total of 541 cases of SCCP compared to 156 733 cases of primary ductal adenocarcinoma, with SCCP representing only 0.2% of all pancreatic tumours. 2 Of those SCCP cases, 91% are found to have metastases at the time of diagnosis, with the most frequent sites of involvement being the liver, peripancreatic lymph node, lungs, bone marrow, and colon.…”

Sclerosing Signet Ring Cell Carcinoma of the Lacrimal Gland: A Potentially New Primary Entity

“…The differential diagnosis for a signet ring adenocarcinoma with single cell invasion and uniform and dense sclerosis in the orbit, overwhelmingly favors a metastatic breast carcinoma [5]. Among other possibilities, tumors of gastric and pancreatic origins are the most frequently associated with a prominent desmoplastic stromal reaction [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Table 1 lists the results of a review of metastatic tumors with an epicenter in the lacrimal gland [6].…”

“…In a search of the literature for case reports, 5 additional examples of metastatic orbital pancreatic carcinoma were found [28][29][30][31][32]. The majority lacked detailed histopathologic descriptions and photomicrographs; none was described as sclerosing.…”

Prostatic carcinoma presenting as unilateral proptosis - a rare case report

“…Several epithelial tumours have been documented to show orbital metastases, including oesophageal [10], breast [11], pancreatic [12] and lung [13] cancers. Metastatic carcinoma to the orbit constitutes only between 2.3% and 7% of all orbital tumours [14] [15].…”