Autopsy data reveals that cardiac metastases occur in approximately 9.7% of patients dying from solid malignant neoplasms, with significant variation based on the primary tumor site.
(1) Autopsy data observed in the National Cancer Center Hospital in Japan were analyzed with reference to cardiac metastasis.(2) Between a period from 1962 to 1965, among 765 deaths from malignant neoplasm which did not include leukemia, over-all incidence of cardiac metastases was 9.7%.(3) Incidences of cardiac metastases in the patients with carcinoma of esophagus, carcinoma of stomach, carcinoma of rectum, carcinoma of lung, reticulum cell sarcoma, carcinoma of breast and carcinoma of tongue were 4.0%, 4.3%, 8.3%, 18.0%, 20.6%, 25.0% and 50.0%, respectively.(4) Number of cases with great vessels' involvement was 13 (1.7%).(5) Seven cases with direct invasion and 5 cases with disseminated pericardial metastases out of 28 cases with pericardial involvement were observed.(6) No effect of radiation therapy on either incidence or distribution of cardiac metastases was observed in all cases except cases with carcinoma of tongue.
Nakayama et al. (Sat,) studied this question.
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