Abstract
Two cases of oral carcinoma with multiple distant metastases involving the heart are presented. According to the Annuals of the Pathological Autopsy Cases in Japan from 1988 to 1992 (edited by The Japanese Society of Pathology), the most common metastatic sites of primary tumors of the oral cavity (lips, tongue, gingiva, other parts of oral cavity and major salivary glands), were the lungs (48.8%), liver (24.2%) and bone (21.0%) . Heart metastasis (9.1%) occurred with the ninth highest frequency in oral malignancies. As for heart metastasis, the lung (10.2%) was the most frequent primary site, followed by the oral cavity, and in the oral cavity, the tongue (13.1%) was the most common primary site. Therefore, it was suggested that in the late stage of oral malignant tumors, the frequency of heart metastasis is higher than expected.
