CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cardio-Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1590186
Cardiac Metastasis in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: A Case Report and Literature Review
Provisionally accepted- Hangzhou Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Metastasis of malignant tumors to the heart is rare in clinical practice, particularly in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). This report presents the case of a male patient diagnosed with PTC who underwent radical surgery and received I131 treatment. During the fourth year of follow-up, he developed cervical lymph node metastasis. Despite systemic treatment, the patient was hospitalized in the seventh year due to a recurrent cough and expectoration. Anti-infective therapies proved ineffective, and imaging revealed lung metastasis. An echocardiogram identified a hypoechoic mass measuring 5.3 cm by 3.2 cm in the right ventricle, attached to the lateral wall and between the anterior and posterior leaflets, indicating cardiac metastasis. Following diagnosis, the patient's condition deteriorated rapidly, culminating in death due to heart failure and severe infection. It is well-established that thyroid cancer can metastasize through both hematogenous and lymphatic pathways, with the lungs and brain being the most common sites, followed by the bones and liver. Cardiac metastasis, however, is exceedingly rare, and clinical reports are scarce. This case underscores the importance of considering atypical metastatic sites in advanced thyroid cancer and highlights the aggressive potential of the disease in certain patients. We hope this case raises awareness among oncologists.
Keywords: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), Cardiac metastasis, Clinical manifestation, prognosis, Treatment
Received: 09 Mar 2025; Accepted: 21 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaonuo Zhang, Hangzhou Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.