Metastatic colon cancer involving the right atrium

Colorectal cancer rarely metastasizes to the heart. In the world medical literature, we identified only 7 cases of well-documented colorectal cancer metastasis to the right atrium. Herein, we describe the case of a 72-year-old man in whom metastatic mucinous adenocarcinoma of the colon involved the...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Texas Heart Institute journal Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 79 - 83
Main Authors:	Patel, Snehalkumar A, Herfel, Barbara M, Nolan, Marc A
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Texas Heart Institute 2012
Subjects:	Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous - complications Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous - diagnostic imaging Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous - secondary Adult Aged Aged, 80 and over Autopsy Case Reports Colorectal Neoplasms - pathology Death, Sudden, Cardiac - etiology Echocardiography, Transesophageal Fatal Outcome Female Heart Atria - pathology Heart Neoplasms - complications Heart Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging Heart Neoplasms - secondary Humans Male Middle Aged Superior Vena Cava Syndrome - etiology neoplasms/diagnosis/secondary diagnosis, differential colonic neoplasms/pathology heart atria/pathology Adenocarcinoma, mucinous/secondary superior vena cava syndrome/pathology
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Colorectal cancer rarely metastasizes to the heart. In the world medical literature, we identified only 7 cases of well-documented colorectal cancer metastasis to the right atrium. Herein, we describe the case of a 72-year-old man in whom metastatic mucinous adenocarcinoma of the colon involved the right atrium and caused superior vena cava syndrome. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of sudden cardiac death due to embolization of metastatic colon cancer from the right atrium. We also present the first comprehensive case series review of this rare entity.Given improvements in diagnostic and therapeutic methods that have increased the longevity of many cancer patients, the detection of cardiac metastases is likely to increase in frequency. Accordingly, we recommend that previously asymptomatic cancer patients with a history of colorectal cancer who develop cardiac symptoms undergo prompt investigation for possible cardiac metastasis.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Case Study-3 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Review-1 ObjectType-Feature-5 ObjectType-Report-2 ObjectType-Article-4
ISSN:	0730-2347 1526-6702