A case of disseminated carcinomatosis of the bone marrow due to gastric cancer, confirmed by autopsy

Abstract

Disseminated carcinomatosis of the bone marrow was reported as diffusely infiltrative carcinoma, a phenotype of bone metastasis. In Japan, Hayashi et al. in 1979 reported disseminated carcinomatosis based on the clinical and pathological characteristics of 40 cases (Japanese article). In addition to the rarity, it is difficult to diagnose because of the poor nodularity and short survival time. Disseminated carcinomatosis of the bone marrow is a disease with poor prognosis and symptoms consisting of a triad of back pain, anemia, and bleeding tendency, along with the increase of ALP and LDH. There have been many case reports of this disease, but most of them were Japanese articles from surgical departments and few autopsy series have been reported. Here, we report a case of a patient with disseminated carcinomatosis of the bone marrow who was transferred to our hospital with fever of unknown origin (FUO) and back pain, but who died due to rapidly worsening clinical conditions. We report this case along with the result of autopsy which revealed the range and the extent of cancer invasion.