Long-Term Survival Obtained by Repeated Cytoreductive Surgery and S-1 Plus Cisplatin Chemotherapy at Each Instance of Disease Progression in a Patient With Metastatic Urachal Carcinoma: A Case Report

Background

Urachal carcinoma (URC) is a rare tumor of the urinary bladder, of which the histology usually resembles that of colorectal adenocarcinoma. Achievement of cure in patients with metastatic URC is difficult, and the survival rate of these patients has remained unsatisfactory despite various efforts.

Case

A 74-year-old female patient presented to us complaining of gross hematuria. Abdominal and thoracic computed tomography revealed a mass in the dome of the bladder with a single lung nodule. The two tumors, which were resected by partial cystectomy and video-assisted thoracic surgery, respectively, were diagnosed by postoperative histopathology as adenocarcinomas. Subsequent to the surgeries, bilateral ovarian metastases and another lung metastasis, which appeared metachronously, were also resected. The repeated cytoreductive surgery combined with administration of S-1 plus cisplatin chemotherapy at each instance of disease progression eventually yielded a durable progression-free survival; even at 5 years after the initial therapy, the patient remained asymptomatic with no limitation of activities despite the failure to achieve “cure”.

Conclusion

Not only some degree of sensitivity of the tumor to chemotherapy, but also the repeated cytoreductive surgeries might allow prolonged survival with a good quality of life in elderly patients with metastatic URC, even in the absence of cure and failure of genetic testing to suggest any potentially effective second-line drugs. To improve the survival of patients with metastatic URC, complementary therapy suggested by the results of genomic profiling may be necessary along with other multimodality therapy, including sequential metastasectomy and chemotherapy.