Background: No established treatments for pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma exist because of its rarity, and the prognosis is poorer than that of other non-small cell lung cancers.
Case report: We present a case of stage IV pleomorphic carcinoma; the patient was a 66-year-old male. He was referred to our hospital because of a right adrenal hemorrhage and a lung tumor. A systemic examination revealed that the lung tumor was a primary lung cancer and that the adrenal hemorrhage was due to a metastatic cancer. We performed an adrenalectomy and resection of the lung tumor and obtained a diagnosis of pleomorphic carcinoma with adrenal metastasis. The patient has remained recurrence-free for 6 years since the surgery.
Conclusions: We report a patient with stage IV pleomorphic carcinoma of the lung and an oligometastasis in whom a complete resection enabled a good outcome. Additional reports are needed to clarify definite prognostic factors and the optimal treatment for pleomorphic carcinoma.
Keywords: Adrenal hemorrhage; Oligometastasis; Pleomorphic carcinoma.