Palliative Radiotherapy Provided Good Pain Relief for Painful Adrenal Metastasis

Masashi Endo; Yukiko Fukuda; Kazunari Ogawa; Satoru Takahashi; Michiko Nakamura; Masahiro Kawahara; Keiko Akahane; Yoshitaka Yamanouchi; Koichi Hagiwara; Harushi Mori; Katsuyuki Shirai

doi:10.1159/000518778

Palliative Radiotherapy Provided Good Pain Relief for Painful Adrenal Metastasis

Case Rep Oncol. 2021 Sep 6;14(3):1266-1270. doi: 10.1159/000518778. eCollection 2021 Sep-Dec.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Jichi Medical University Hospital, Shimotsuke, Japan.
² Department of Radiology, Jichi Medical University Saitama Medical Center, Saitama, Japan.
³ Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Jichi Medical University Hospital, Shimotsuke, Japan.

Abstract

Adrenal metastases often occur in patients with metastasized lung cancer, but symptoms rarely develop. A 45-year-old man presented with right abdominal pain requiring strong opioids due to large right adrenal metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma. The tumor was 7.3 × 5.6 × 8.4 cm in size. He was treated with palliative radiotherapy (RT) up to 39 Gy in 13 fractions for this lesion without severe adverse effects. After RT, he had good pain relief, and opioids were no longer needed. Palliative RT for a large adrenal tumor can provide a good analgesic effect without relevant toxicity.

Keywords: Adrenal metastasis; Non-small cell lung carcinoma; Radiotherapy.

Publication types

Case Reports