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A case of cardiac metastases from head and neck cancer presenting as hyperdense armored heart

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Abstract

Cardiac metastases from head and neck cancers are sometimes found at autopsy, but are rarely found before death; therefore, case reports are uncommon. In this report, we describe a case of cardiac metastasis from head and neck cancer. Although asymptomatic at the time of detection, positron emission tomography–computed tomography was effective in ascertaining the diagnosis. However, patients with cardiac metastases usually have a poor prognosis, and unfortunately, the patient died shortly after detection. At autopsy, the patient had a “hyperdense armored heart” owing to a huge pericardial metastases. Here, we report the imaging and autopsy findings of a hyperdense armored heart owing to cardiac metastases from head and neck cancer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Miyagi Cancer Center, 47-1 Nodayama, Medeshima-Shiode, Natori, Miyagi, 981-1293, Japan

    Keitaro Fujii, Takayuki Imai, Yukinori Asada & Kazuto Matsuura

  2. Department of Pathology, Miyagi Cancer Center, 47-1 Nodayama, Medeshima-Shiode, Natori, Miyagi, Japan

    Ikuro Sato

  3. Department of Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Miyagi Cancer Center, 47-1 Nodayama, Medeshima-Shiode, Natori, Miyagi, Japan

    Tomoko Yamazaki

  4. Department of Head and Neck Surgery, National Cancer Center East, 6-5-1 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan

    Kazuto Matsuura

Authors
  1. Keitaro Fujii
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  2. Takayuki Imai
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  3. Yukinori Asada
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  4. Ikuro Sato
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  5. Tomoko Yamazaki
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  6. Kazuto Matsuura
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takayuki Imai.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report.

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Fujii, K., Imai, T., Asada, Y. et al. A case of cardiac metastases from head and neck cancer presenting as hyperdense armored heart. Int Canc Conf J 11, 23–26 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13691-021-00509-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13691-021-00509-8

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