A Case of Metastatic Urachal Carcinoma Treated with Palliative Chemotherapy with Gemcitabine and Cisplatin

Abstract

Urachal carcinoma is a rare, non-urothelial carcinoma that represents less than one percent of all bladder cancers. We present a case of a 48-year-old man who presented metastatic urachal carcinoma with intermittent abdominal pain and a poor Performance Status (PS). The patient initially underwent two cycles of XELOX-P (Oxaliplatin/Xeloda/Paclitaxel) chemotherapy after his initial salvage surgery. He came to our hospital for tumor progression and badly abdominal pain. He then received Gemcitabine and Cisplatin (GC) regimen at 80% of the dose with good tolerance and manageable toxicities. After six cycles of chemotherapy, he had a stable disease response, including impressive clinical response on medical symptoms and minor shrinkage of tumor mass on imaging. This case suggests the importance of palliative chemotherapy of GC regimen for the metastatic urachal cancer patients, and that performance status alone should not be limiting decision factors for cancer patients.