Breast cancer metastasizing to the pleura, pericardium and leptomeninges, but not to other sites, is rare. Although malignant pericardial and pleural effusions are common complications during the course of malignancies, they are rarely the initial manifestations of malignant disease, particularly pericardial effusion with cardiac tamponade. This report describes a case of breast carcinoma in a 44-year-old woman who initially presented with malignant pleural effusion and pericardial tamponade and suffered from meningeal metastases after 4.5 months. Unfortunately, the patient succumbed to pericardial tamponade 7 months later. There was no metastasis identified in other organs during the course of the disease. To the best of our knowledge, no similar case has been reported in the literature to date.
Keywords: breast cancer; malignant pericardial effusion; malignant pleural effusion; meningeal metastasis; pericardial tamponade.