title: Intra-cardiac metastasis from testicular non-seminoma germ cell tumour; to resect or not to resect.
abstract: Metastatic heart tumours are rare. Most arise from lung, breast and renal cancerous primaries, soft-tissue sarcoma and malignant melanoma. We report the case of a 32-year-old policeman who presented to the emergency department very short of breath with a five-week history of weight loss and malaise. He was noted to have a mass in his right testicle, numerous 2-3 cm round shadows on chest X-ray (CXR) and a large mass within the right ventricular cavity. After much informed debate, the patient was treated solely with chemotherapy with the expectation of cure. We set out this argument and recommendations for future patients with this unusual problem.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Papworth Everard, Cambridge CB23 3RE, UK.
authors.forename: Fouad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Taghavi
authors.forename: Sheraz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Markar
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Large
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D018579:Patient Selection; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome