Incidental pathologically proven pulmonary hamartoma in a patient with carcinoma tongue

Pulmonary hamartomas are usually clinically silent and found incidentally on chest radiographs. They can lead to diagnostic confusion especially in patients who have been previously treated for primary cancers at other sites. This can lead to consideration of metastatic malignancy as the primary diagnostic possibility. In this case, evaluation of a solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) in a patient with carcinoma of tongue led to the diagnosis of pulmonary chondroid hamartoma. This highlights the fact that a pulmonary nodule in a patient with progressive cancer at another site does not always indicate pulmonary metastasis.