Zeitschrift für klinische Fallberichte

Metachronous Metastasis of Pheochromocytoma to the Clivus: Report of an Exceptional Case

Abstract

Azzakhmam M, Essaoudi MA, El-Ochi M, Allaoui M, Al-Bouzidi A and Oukabli M

Pheochromocytomas (PCC) are rare neuroendocrine tumors of the medulla of adrenal glands. Malignant pheochromocytomas are even rarer and forming 10-25% of all PCC. The only criterion to establish malignant behaviour being distant metastasis to site without chromaffin tissue. We report an exceptional case of metachronous intracranial metastasis of pheochromocytoma to the clival bone in a 59-years-old patient. The patient was managed surgically for a wright adrenal pheochromocytoma ten years before. Only six cases of intracranial metastasis of pheochromocytoma have been reported in the literature, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the seventh case and the first clival bone metastasis of this rare condition.