Abstract
Malignant cardiac tumors are rare and challenging entity. Experience in treating these aggressive and lethal tumors is minimal and management protocols are not well defined and have to rely on case reports, and personal experiences. Most effective therapy for primary cardiac malignancy is a complete surgical resection and the role of chemoradiotherapy is still evolving.
Highlights
Malignant cardiac tumors are rare and challenging entity
Leiomyosarcoma is sarcoma of smooth muscle cells of endocardium with a peak in the 5th decade (10% of all cardiac malignancies).Usually occurs in the left atrial roof as multiple endocavitary mass and the pulmonary infundibulum and artery, where it presents like pulmonary embolism
Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is superior to Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) in identifying small tumors (
Summary
The reported prevalence of cardiac tumors ranges from 0.17% to 0.28% in various autopsy series [2] [3] [4]. More frequently tumors of the heart occur in children. Simcha and Nadas reported the incidence of cardiac tumors in children as 0.08% and 0.027% respectively. The prevalence of cardiac neoplasms, unlike other malignancies, have shown little change over. Among the primary cardiac tumors, about 10% - 25% are malignant. About 75% - 90% are sarcoma [5]. Angiosarcomas and unclassified sarcomas being the most common. Metastatic involvement of the heart is even more common with prevalence of 2.3% - 18.3%. Melanoma (hematogenous route), breast and lung carcinoma (direct infiltration and lymphatic route) show the incidence of cardiac metastasis [6]
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