Key result
Emergency echocardiography revealed a rare left ventricular metastatic mass in a 67-year-old female with a history of skin melanoma presenting with acute cardiopulmonary compromise.
Why the study?
Melanoma can metastasize to the heart, but presenting symptoms often mimic common cardiopulmonary diseases, leading to most cardiac metastases being diagnosed only on autopsy.
Case Report (n=1)
No
Cardiac metastasis from melanoma is a rare but important differential diagnosis in patients with a history of melanoma presenting with acute heart failure or hemodynamic instability.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Symptomatic melanoma patients warrant cardiac metastasis consideration; case extends sparse antemortem reports but leaves screening and management open.
Melanoma is a rare and aggressive type of cancer that can metastasize to any organ of the body, including the heart. The most common symptoms are shortness of breath (36.4%) and tachycardia (24.2%). Given that these are the most common cardiovascular and pulmonary disease symptoms, cardiac metastases are mostly diagnosed on autopsy. We report a case of a 67-year-old female who was previously diagnosed with BRAF-mutated skin melanoma pT3aN0M0 of the chest which was surgically excised and received treatment with targeted therapy. The chest X-ray showed bilateral opacification of the lung field consistent with pulmonary edema. During echocardiography a mass was revealed in the left ventricle. The treatment strategy in cardiac metastases is usually based on histology. In case of melanoma targeted therapy and immunotherapy are indicated, while surgical resection is reserved for selected cases, usually to palliate symptoms of heart failure and outflow tract obstruction.
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Bumbu et al. (2025) conducted a case report in Cardiac melanoma metastasis (n=1). Echocardiography was evaluated. Emergency echocardiography revealed a rare left ventricular metastatic mass in a 67-year-old female with a history of skin melanoma presenting with acute cardiopulmonary compromise.
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