Intracardiac Metastasis of SCC Of Lung: Rare Unusual Incidental Finding on Autopsy Case Report

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Metastasic tumors of the heart are extremely rare and these cases are mostly diagnosed at autopsy. Although being rare, these tumors are 30 - 40 times more common than the primary cardiac tumors. The incidence of metastatic tumor of the heart is 1.5 to 20.6% which is gradually increasing in number. In the majority of carcinomas metastatic to the heart,the primary tumor is in the thoracic cavity or contiguous area, and the tumor reaches the heart by metastasizing to the mediastinal lymph nodes and from there it extends in a retrograde fashion to the cardiac lymph vessels. METHODOLOGY: Autopsy was conducted on a 40-year-old male patient who had died of a chronic unknown illness and his organs which included heart, lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys ere received in our department. OBSERVATION AND RESULTS: Microsections from lung and various portions of the heart showed a well diff erentiated SCCs with keratinization and sporadic keratin pearls. CONCLUSION: Metastasis to the heart develops very rarely as the initial presentation of a malignancy. Most of the patients have widespread metastasis and cardiac involvement is usually diagnosed at autopsy. Although cardiac metastasis from heart is rare, the possibility of the primary should be considered in the absence of a previous history, symptoms or even a discrete lesion.