Cervical cancer is the third most common malignant disease of women worldwide. Despite advances in screening and treatment strategies, a significant number of patients have advanced and recurrent disease. These patients are not amenable to curative treatments, such as surgery and radiation, and have poor prognosis. Therefore, palliative treatment remains the standard of care for these patients. Several phase II/III trials have demonstrated that cisplatin is the most active single agent, and the combination of cisplatin and paclitaxel is considered a standard regimen for clinical practice and trials in these patients with improved response rates and progression-free intervals. Although other cisplatin doublet chemotherapy regimens were not superior to cisplatin plus paclitaxel, substituting topotecan or gemcitabine for paclitaxel might be helpful for some patients considering different toxicity profiles. Because the response to palliative chemotherapy is poor, several targeted agents including bevacizumab, erlotinib, pazopanib, lapatinib, sunitinib and cetuximab, each of which inhibits cell proliferation and angiogenesis, were evaluated in these patients. Of them, bevacizumab, targeting vascular endothelial growth factor, showed favorable results. Recent phase III trial showed that bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy was shown to significantly improve the response rate, progression-free interval, and overall survival compared to chemotherapy alone. These results suggest that targeted agents could significantly improve survival and affect practice guidelines in these patients showing poor prognosis. Thus, future trials using newly developed targeted agents are warranted to improve treatment strategies in these patients.

The presence of intracavitary cardiac metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix is extremely rare. The diagnosis is made almost exclusively postmortem. Apart from causing intracardiac obstruction, it can present as pulmonary emboli and the prognosis is extremely poor. It is important to suspect this diagnosis in patient with recurrent pulmonary emboli. Due to the rarity of this condition it is very difficult to standardize care for these patients. However, it is possible that aggressive therapy may lengthen patients' survival and quality of life. We present a case of isolated intracavitary cardiac metastasis arising from a squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix, 44-year-old woman, diagnosed as stage complaint of fatigue and dyspnea on mild exertion. The echocardiogram showed a mass in the right ventricle and suspicious pulmonary embolism. We took an aggressive therapeutic approach. The pathological examination of the resected tissue revealed metastatic squamous cell carcinoma.

Syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH) has various causes including central nervous system disorders, pulmonary and endocrine diseases, paraneoplastic syndromes, and use of certain drugs. SIADH induced by chemotherapy with irinotecan-cisplatin is not a common complication. Here, we review a case of SIADH after treatment with irinotecan-cisplatin. A 45-year-old woman received adjuvant chemotherapy (paclitaxel-carboplatin) for ovarian clear cell carcinoma, but the cancer recurred within 9 months of chemotherapy. Subsequently, a second line of combination chemotherapy containing irinotecan-cisplatin was initiated. However, 5 days after chemotherapy administration, her general condition began to deteriorate; her hematological tests revealed hyponatremia. Therefore, it is imperative to consider the possibility of SIADH in patients being treated with irinotecan-cisplatin–based chemotherapy. Proper monitoring of serum sodium levels and assessment of clinical symptoms should be performed in such patients for early diagnosis and prompt management.