| Abstract: | Involvement of the heart in cases of parotid tumors has rarely been described and then only in cases where there was widespread metastatic disease. We report here the case of a patient with a pleomorphic-type adenocarcinoma arising from a parotid gland, in which the patient developed a malignant pericardial effusion as the first and only evidence of distant metastasis. The effusion resolved following radiation therapy (4,000 rad) to the pericardial area, and the patient was alive and disease-free one year after the diagnosis of pericardial metastasis was established. The literature on the metastatic spread of malignant parotid tumors with particular emphasis on cardiac dissemination is reviewed. |
