Cervical radiating pain due to metastatic lesion on the cervical spine in the patient with a history of multiple cancer

Cervical radiating pain is sometimes difficult to diagnosis exactly because of the anatomical complexity of the cervical spine. Especially, the pain originates from malignancies are more confusing because of its mimic symptoms of radiculopathy. Thus, clinicians must always keep in mind that the source of cervical radiating pain could be the metastasis of cancer rather than the common source such as disc herniation and careful diagnosis based on the history taking, physical examination, and imaging study is required. Here we report a case of 86-year-old male with multiple cancer history who complained left chronic neck pain mimic radiculopathy. At first, facet joint disease was suspected, and a cervical medial branch block was performed, which was unresponsive. We recommended an MRI examination strongly due to his history and metastatic extraosseous lesions were found on the left C3/4/5 spine.