Pericardial Metastasis From Recurrent Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Hypopharynx in a Living Patient

Cardiac metastatic disease is a rare finding and is usually diagnosed incidentally postmortem; it has been commonly reported in patients with cancers of lung, esophagus, breast, and melanoma. We present a case of a 62-year-old male with a history of squamous cell carcinoma of the pyriform sinus who...

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Published inCurēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 14; no. 4; p. e24216
Main Authors Antala, Drashti, Mohamed, Khalid, Kim, Leeseul, Bhatti, Samir, Adhikari, Pabitra, Oliff, Ira
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Cureus Inc 17.04.2022
Cureus
Subjects
Biopsy
Cancer therapies
Case reports
Cellular biology
Head & neck cancer
Heart
Hospitals
Internal Medicine
Larynx
Medical prognosis
Metastasis
Oncology
Patients
Radiation
Radiology
Squamous cell carcinoma
Throat cancer
Tissue engineering
Tumors
Ultrasonic imaging
United States > US
cardiac metastasis
laryngopharyngeal cancer
metastatic pyriform sinus carcinoma
pericardial metastasis
squamous cell carcinoma
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Summary:Cardiac metastatic disease is a rare finding and is usually diagnosed incidentally postmortem; it has been commonly reported in patients with cancers of lung, esophagus, breast, and melanoma. We present a case of a 62-year-old male with a history of squamous cell carcinoma of the pyriform sinus who presented with shortness of breath for one day. He underwent tumor resection followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy seven months before this presentation. Computed tomography (CT) of the chest revealed pericardial nodular soft tissue that was consistent with the diagnosis of metastatic carcinomatosis. Further imaging with a transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) showed a likely metastatic pericardial mass. The patient had presented with shortness of breath three months prior to this admission and TTE had demonstrated pericardial effusion. However, pericardial fluid cytology was negative for malignancy, and the repeat TTE had revealed resolution of the pericardial effusion. On the current admission, CT of the neck demonstrated local recurrence of the tumor in the resection bed with scattered regional lymph nodes enlargement. Thus, we report a case of a recurrent laryngopharyngeal tumor with very rarely reported pericardial metastasis.
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.24216