[Metastatic Cardiac Tumor in the Left Atrium from Esophageal Cancer]

Metastatic cardiac lesions are clinically silent and are usually found a necropsy. The most common primary tumor resulting in cardiac metastases is carcinoma of the lung, with there being only a few reports of metastases from esophageal cancer. We report two cases of metastatic cardiac tumors in the left atrium from esophageal cancer and perform a review of the literature. Case 1:A 62-year-old woman underwent esophagectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy. No other metastases were observed. Case 2:A 49-year-old man also underwent esophagectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy for lymph node and liver metastases. In both patients, the left atrial tumors were detected on recent follow-up computed tomography. Left atrial tumors often cause cerebral emboli with neurological sequelae. Therefore, surgical resection and cryo-ablation for the prevention of local recurrence were performed on the metastatic tumors. Local recurrence was not observed after the surgery in both patients. Although chemotherapy is usu-ally the most beneficial treatment for metastatic cardiac lesions, left atrial tumor should be treated with surgical resection because of the high risk of cerebral emboli. We suggest that surgical resection with cryo-ablation may prevent local recurrence.