Acute pancreatitis as presenting symptom and sole manifestation of small cell lung carcinoma

Abstract

A 58-year-old man with no sign of pulmonary disease and a normal chest x-ray presented with acute pancreatitis resistant to conventional medical management and a mass in the head of the pancreas. The presumptive diagnosis was pancreatic cancer with tumor-induced pancreatitis. However, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography suggested metastatic rather than primary tumor, so that an extrapancreatic primary was actively sought. Further lung work-up demonstrated a small cell carcinoma of the lung. This case indicates that metastasis-induced acute pancreatitis can be the presenting symptom and sole manifestation of lung cancer.