Long-term survival of a patient with common bile duct cancer after Virchow’s node recurrence: Report of a case

A 62-year-old male patient with common bile duct (CBD) cancer underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy with lymphadenectomy in 2002. Histological examinations revealed moderately differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma with lymph node metastasis around the pancreas head and hepatoduodenal ligament. No adjuvant chemotherapy was performed, due to the risk of side effects. Two years after the first operation, new lesions developed at the left supraclavicular area. These lesions were considered to be Virchow’s node metastasis of the original CBD cancer. However, we could not detect any other metastatic lesions in the intraabdominal lymph nodes around the aorta. We resected the lesion. Histological examinations showed a similar histological appearance of this lesion to that of the CBD cancer resected in 2002. At present, the patient has survived for more than 80 months after receiving the second surgery. In selected cases, surgery might be considered even for a Virchow’s node metastasis of CBD cancers if there are no other recurrent lesions.