Detection of Asymptomatic Cardiac Metastasis and Successful Salvage Chemotherapy Comprising a Prednisone, Etoposide, Procarbazine, and Cyclophosphamide Regimen in an Elderly Japanese Patient Suffering from a Delayed Recurrence of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

Abstract

We report a case of facial diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) associated with recurrent metastasis in the heart and other sites in a 76-year-old Japanese woman. Initially, she developed DLBCL in her left upper eyelid that spread into the left orbit (Ann Arbor classification stage I). The lesion went into clinical regression after 4 cycles of rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy. More than 3 years later, the lymphoma recurred in her facial skin, together with metastases in the mediastinal lymph nodes and the heart; the tumor in the heart was successfully detected by PET/CT and cardiac MRI. To treat the recurrent lesions, we performed a salvage chemotherapy regimen comprising prednisone, etoposide, procarbazine, and cyclophosphamide, which successfully induced tumor regression.

Keywords

• Salvage chemotherapy
• Prednisone, etoposide,procarbazine, and cyclophosphamide regimen
• Malignant lymphoma
• Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
• Recurrence
• Cardiacmetastasis
• Cardiac MRI
• PET/CT