Gastrointestinal bleeding due to pancreatic metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer: A report of two cases and a literature review

The current study presents two cases of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding due to pancreatic metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The two patients had a history of lung adenocarcinoma prior to pancreatic metastasis. The first patient presented with melena, epigastric pain and weight loss, and the second patient presented with melena and weight loss. The diagnoses were confirmed by biopsy of the metastatic lesions. Immunohistochemistry is useful for managing the differential diagnosis between lung cancer and pancreatic carcinoma in patients with a history of lung cancer. Chemotherapy prolonged the survival of the second patient. However, the first patient received no chemotherapy and succumbed to NSCLC six weeks after the diagnosis of metastatic pancreatic cancer. GI bleeding as a result of pancreatic metastasis of NSCLC is extremely rare; including the present two cases, only three cases have been reported in the English literature. The current study is presented in order to increase the awareness of GI hemorrhage as a manifestation of this relatively rare condition.