Metastatic lung cancer presenting as lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in the developed world, and often presents with metastatic disease. Metastatic lung cancer rarely presents with gastrointestinal symptoms, but we report a case of an elderly male with metastatic lung carcinoma to the cecum who presented with melena. The patient required blood transfusions, but eventually died of septic shock. This case is consistent with previously reported cases of lung cancer metastatic to the gastrointestinal tract which suggest that tumor-associated bleeding in this patient population is a pre-terminal event. (Heart Lung (R) 2007;36: 454-455).