Isolated splenic metastasis from colorectal carcinoma: report of a case and review of the literature

In general, surgical resection for metastatic colorectal adenocarcinoma rarely benefits more than a small percentage of patients long term. In the case of isolated splenic metastasis without evidence of other metastatic disease, splenectomy may increase survival times in patients with previously resected colorectal adenocarcinoma. Currently there are only five case reports involving isolated splenic metastases in the English-language literature. This article presents a sixth case and a review of the previous five cases in the literature, with a discussion on the possible diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to these rare but important cases and the apparently significant survival advantage of early diagnosis and treatment.