Surgical management of metastatic melanoma to the ventricle.

The treatment of patients who have cardiac tumors can be challenging, because these tumors occur infrequently and in variable locations, and surgical resection is often technically difficult. We report the cases of 2 patients, each of whom underwent successful surgical excision of large melanomas that had metastasized to the right cardiac ventricle. Although the presence of widespread disease and a limited life expectancy usually prevent surgical therapy for patients who have metastatic cardiac tumors, removal of such masses greatly facilitated subsequent medical management of these 2 patients and improved their quality of life.