Vol.97 No.8 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 97 No. 8 August 2004
Intramuscular Metastasis from Oropharyngeal Cancer
Koji Nishimura, Ken Ishijima and Hiroaki Sato
(Iwate Medical University)
Skeletal muscle is an uncommon site of metastasis in the field of head and neck cancer. We report here a rare case of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma with right bicep intramuscular metastasis. Our patient had advanced oropharyngeal carcinoma and complained of right upper arm induration. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed that bicep muscle tumor showed high-signal intensity on T1-weighted images and low-signal intensity on T2-weighted images, with heterogenous texture. Needle aspirate of the mass revealed matastasis of squamous cell carcinoma in the bicep muscle. Three months later, the patient died of progressive metastatic disease.
Key words : intramuscular metastasis, oropharyngeal cancer, lymphatic spread, hematogenous spread