title: Muscle metastasis of carcinoma.
abstract: Metastatic carcinoma of the soft tissue is extremely rare compared with bone metastases. An intramuscular mass is often thought to be a primary soft tissue sarcoma because intramuscular metastases are very uncommon. Any painful soft tissue mass occurring in patients with a known history of carcinoma, particularly with extensive peritumoral enhancement associated with central necrosis, is highly suspicious for skeletal muscle metastasis. A needle biopsy is necessary for proper diagnosis. It is very important to make a differential diagnosis between metastasis and primary cancer in these cases. Here we present a review of known evidence.
authors.affiliation: Section of Oncology, Hospital Virgen de la Luz, Cuenca, Spain. mjmolinagarrido@hotmail.com
authors.forename: María José
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Molina-Garrido
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guillén-Ponce
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019042:Muscle Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy; D009382:Neoplasms, Unknown Primary / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy