Malignant Cardiac Tumors: Diagnosis and Treatment

Abstract

Primary malignant cardiac tumors are represented by sarcomas and non-Hodgkin lymphomas. They are rare, affect mostly patients in the fourth decade of life and have a severe prognosis. Both the diagnosis and the treatment require a multidisciplinary approach, and the cardiologist plays a central role both in the diagnosis and in the follow-up. The prognosis may be improved by a careful planning of surgery and by the use of multimodality treatment, including complementary chemotherapy and radiation therapy. A strict follow-up must be planned even after apparently complete cure.

KEYWORDS :

• cardiac lymphoma
• cardiac malignancy
• cardiac radiotherapy
• cardiac sarcomas
• cardiac tumors
• chemotherapy
• malignant cardiac tumors
• non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• sarcoma
• surgery

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Giovanni Aquaro (Istituto Monasterio, Pisa) for providing the MRI of Figure 5, and to Luca Balestreri (CRO, Natiobnal Cancer Institute, Aviano), for providing the CT scan imaging ofFigure 7.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Notes

TAPSE: Tricuspid anular plane systolic excursion.