Abstract
A 66-year-old man had type 4 gastric cancer from the anterior wall of the greater curvature of the stomach to the vestibule. In September 2005, he underwent a distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer. The postoperative diagnosis was pT3N2M0CY0P0 stage IIIB.
On the 16th day after surgery, he underwent a Kugel hernioplasty for a right inguinal hernia.
Thirty-two months after gastric surgery, the patient noticed a mass in his right inguinal region, which was subsequently diagnosed as metastatic gastric cancer. Though he underwent radiotherapy and three lines of chemotherapy, he died 68 months after gastric cancer surgery. An autopsy revealed that, although lymphogenous metastases were observed throughout the body, no hematogenous metastases and no peritoneal metastases were observed. Inguinal metastasis of gastric cancer is extremely rare ; the possibility that the surgery in the inguinal region or the insertion of the mesh was the cause of the metastasis cannot be ruled out.
