Article Text
Unusual presentation of more common disease/injury
Lower lip numbness in a patient with colorectal cancer
Summary
Metastatic lesions to the mandible are rare, comprising less than 1% of all malignancies. A 75-year-old gentleman presented to ENT outpatient with a 3-week history of numbness over his lower lip on the right side followed by a rapidly growing swelling in his right mandibular region. The patient was diagnosed with an obstructing sigmoid tumour with metastasis to the liver and retroperitoneal adenopathy, 5 months ago. A colonic stent was inserted for the sigmoid tumour and patient was undergoing palliative chemotherapy. CT scan of the mandibular region showed mass lesion invading the ascending ramus of mandible and involving the right inferior alveolar nerve. Trucut biopsy confirmed metastatic adenocarcinoma.