Jejunal intussusception caused by metastasis of a giant cell carcinoma of the lung

A 55-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital reporting of nausea, vomiting and anorexia. One month before admission, she had been diagnosed with lung cancer with intestinal metastasis. A CT scan confirmed intussusception due to intestinal metastasis and she underwent emergency laparoscopic surgery followed by resection of the primary lung cancer. Histopathological findings of the intestinal specimen suggested the metastasis was from a giant cell carcinoma of the lung, which had extensive necrosis. She was still alive without recurrence 11 months after the first surgery. Giant cell carcinoma of the lung is a rare type of non-small cell carcinoma and intestinal metastasis is one of the unique features. This type of tumour has such aggressive characteristics that oncological prognosis is reported to be extremely poor. In our case, however, complete surgical resection of both primary and metastatic tumours might result in a better outcome than has been reported.