Skeletal Muscle Metastasis Secondary to Cancer - A Report of Seven Cases

Skeletal muscle metastasis from malignant melanoma: a case report and review of the literature

“…The commonly reported primary malignancies that may metastasize to the skeletal muscle are lung cancer, renal cell carcinoma and gastrointestinal tumours and genital tumours, but rarely melanoma [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] . The best epidemiological evidence for skeletal muscle metastasis reported to date was from an 8-year retrospective review of Surov et al They reported an incidence of 1.2% out of 5,170 patients that presented with metastatic solid malignancies, and most of them (91.8%) already had widespread metastases when the distal skeletal muscle was found to be invaded, hence it's uncommon to see isolated intramuscular metastases without spreading to other distant organs as in our case.…”

“…The common clinical scenario in which skeletal muscle metastasis is detected is the presenting symptom of a painful mass (usually more than 5 cm in diameter) [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] . This may be an important clue to suggest metastasis rather than a primary sarcoma of soft tissue, which is more commonly seen but typically present as painless soft tissue masses [14,20] .…”

Iliopsoas Metastasis from Cervix Carcinoma Masquerading as Psoas Abscess

“…However, metastases into the iliopsoas muscle are a rare phenomenon. Although the reasons for its rarity are not established, some factors that might account for the infrequency of skeletal muscle metastasis have been postulated such as dislodgment of tumor cells by blood turbulence and muscle contraction, unfavorable pH and effect of protease inhibitors within the muscle unfavorable to the growth of malignant tissue [1][2][3][4].…”

“…Fine needle and trocard biopsy under radiologic guidance can be proposed as first diagnostic modality for such patients as in our case the aspirate from the left psoas show the presence of tumor cells. It may obviate the need for surgery in some cases [2,3,5,10].…”

“…Isolated metastases to iliopsoas muscle are uncommon and may be misdiagnosed when it is the presenting symptom, especially in the absence of a known primary tumor [1]. Radiologically and clinically these lesions can be mistaken for abscesses [2,3]. We describe a rare case of secondary psoas abscess arising from an advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix fifteen years after initial radiotherapy.…”