A rare case of urachal adenocarcinoma with bone marrow metastasis

Abstract

Urachal cancer is a rare and aggressive cancer that often presents in advanced stages. Given the rarity of this malignancy, medical case studies provide one of the few sources of literature available through which clinicians can guide medical management. Surgery is widely considered to be the mainstay of therapy when disease is localised and surgically resectable, therefore most current case studies on urachal cancer focus on surgical management, occasionally with adjuvant chemotherapy. However, few case studies discuss chemotherapy alone in the treatment of metastatic disease. Most studies indicate a median overall survival between 12 and 24 months for metastatic urachal adenocarcinoma. Bone marrow metastasis of solid tumours, when considered alone, portends a poor prognosis. The patient in this case study represents a rare case of stage IV urachal adenocarcinoma metastatic to the bone marrow without progression of disease after 6 months of treatment.