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Vol.49 No.6 contents | Japanese/English |
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- Case Report -
A Case of Cardiac Tamponade Due to Malignant Pericardial Effusion of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Unknown Primary Site
Itaru Nagahiro11Department of Surgery, Himeji Red Cross Hospital, Japan
Background. Cardiac tamponade due to malignant pericardial effusion of squamous cell carcinoma of an unknown primary site and its long-term survival is extremely rare. Case. A 51-year-old woman with fatigue and leg edema was referred to our hospital and given a diagnosis of cardiac tamponade in December, 2004, and pericardial drainage revealed bloody effusion. Cytologic diagnosis revealed class V squamous cell carcinoma. We searched carefully for the primary lesion but no lesion was detected. Only high accumulation of fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in the posterior pleural surface of the right lung was observed in positron emission tomography (PET) scan, however, retrospective review of a chest CT scan was not able to detect any abnormality in the region. She received 4 courses of chemotherapy of cisplatin and vinorelbine, thereafter, the pericardial effusion has never accumulated and the accumulation of FDG in the right lung has completely disappeared. She is doing well without any sign of recurrence in March, 2009 and she has totally returned to the previous job. Conclusions. This case might be a lung cancer or pleural cancer that could not be detected by CT scan. Cisplatin-based chemotherapy might have contributed to the long-term survival.
key words: Cancer of unknown primary, Squamous cell carcinoma, Malignant pericardial effusion, Cardiac tamponade, Chemotherapy
Received: April 9, 2009
Accepted: June 25, 2009
JJLC 49 (6): 885-889, 2009
