Tonsillar metastases: report on two cases and review of literature

Metastases to the tonsils are extremely infrequent. Less than 70 cases have been reported in literature since 1858. The commonest sources of tonsillar metastases are malignant melanomas and carcinomas of the breast and the lungs. We report about two new cases of tonsillar metastases, one of which developed from a malignant melanoma, the other one from a hepatocellular carcinoma. We have not found any reports on tonsillar metastases stemming from hepatocellular carcinomas in literature and, moreover, in our case, this was the clinical presentation of the primary tumor.