Obstructive metastatic malignant melanoma of the heart: Imminent pulmonary arterial occlusion caused by right ventricular metastasis with unknown origin of the primary tumor

Abstract

Whether primary or metastatic, cardiac neoplastic diseases are relatively uncommon disorders. Although any malignancy may involve the heart, malignant melanoma (MM) has a significant tendency to metastasize to the heart. Cardiac involvement may occur during the course of MM or years after surgical therapy, but rarely metastasis may be the initial manifestation of the disease. This article reports a metastatic MM case that was initially manifested by heart failure symptoms because of right ventricle outflow obstruction and for which the primary focus could not be determined.