A case of non-small cell lung cancer that metastasized to the gingiva

About 5% of all malignancies involve the oral cavity. Metastatic cancers to the oral cavity from distant sites are very rare, and only a few cases have been reported in the clinical literature. The most common tumors that metastasize to the oral cavity originate in the breast, lung, and kidney. We recently experienced a patient who had a non-small cell lung cancer that metastasized to the gingiva. The patient was 56-year-old man. The disease status was a progressive condition, although the patient had received third-line chemotherapy. The patient had multiple bony metastases including vertebral bodies, femurs, and clivus as well as the gingival metastasis. The gingival tumor was histopathologically diagnosed as a poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. The metastatic gingival tumor had the same pathology as the primary lung cancer.