Heart cancer is an extremely rare form of cancer that is divided into primary tumors of the heart and secondary tumors of the heart.

Types

Primary

Most heart tumors begin with

myxoma A myxoma (New Latin from Greek 'muxa' for mucus) is a myxoid tumor of primitive connective tissue. It is most commonly found in the heart (and is the most common primary tumor of the heart in adults) but can also occur in other locations. Ty ...

fibroma Fibromas are benign tumors that are composed of fibrous or connective tissue. They can grow in all organs, arising from mesenchyme tissue. The term "fibroblastic" or "fibromatous" is used to describe tumors of the fibrous connective tissue. Whe ...

rhabdomyoma A rhabdomyoma is a benign tumor of striated muscle. Rhabdomyomas may be either "cardiac" or "extra cardiac" (occurring outside the heart). Extracardiac forms of rhabdomyoma are sub classified into three distinct types: adult type, fetal type, and g ...

s, and

hamartoma A hamartoma is a mostly benign, local malformation of cells that resembles a neoplasm of local tissue but is usually due to an overgrowth of multiple aberrant cells, with a basis in a systemic genetic condition, rather than a growth descended f ...

s, although malignant

sarcoma A sarcoma is a malignant tumor, a type of cancer that arises from transformed cells of mesenchymal (connective tissue) origin. Connective tissue is a broad term that includes bone, cartilage, fat, vascular, or hematopoietic tissues, and sa ...

s (such as

angiosarcoma Angiosarcoma is a rare and aggressive cancer that starts in the endothelial cells that line the walls of blood vessels or lymphatic vessels. Since they are made from vascular lining, they can appear anywhere and at any age, but older people are ...

cardiac sarcoma Angiosarcoma is a rare and aggressive cancer that starts in the endothelial cells that line the walls of blood vessels or lymphatic vessels. Since they are made from vascular lining, they can appear anywhere and at any age, but older people are ...

) have been known to occur. In a study of 12,487 autopsies performed in Hong Kong seven cardiac tumors were found, most of which were benign. According to Mayo Clinic: "At Mayo Clinic, on average only one case of heart cancer is seen each year." In a study conducted in the Hospital of the Medical University of Vienna 113 primary cardiac tumour cases were identified in a time period of 15 years with 11 being malignant. The mean survival in the latter group of patients was found to be . Primary malignant cardiac tumors (PMCTs) are even rarer. The most recent published study about PMCTs used the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End-Results (SEER) Cancer Registry to study 497 patients with PMCTs who were diagnosed during 2000–2001 in the United States. Most cases were angiosarcomas (27.3%) with an incidence of 0.107 per 1,000,000 person-years and Non- Hodgkin's lymphomas HL(26.9%), with an incidence of 0.108 per 1,000,000 person-years. The incidence rate of NHL increased significantly over the study period, but the incidence of cardiac angiosarcomas did not. The overall survival of NHL was found to be significantly better than angiosarcomas. Another previous study using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End-Results (SEER) Cancer Registry from 1973 to 2011 found 551 cases of PMCTs, with an incidence of 34 cases per million persons. The study also found that the incidence has doubled over the past four decades. The associated mortality was very high, with only 46% of patients alive after one year. Sarcomas and mesotheliomas had the worst survival, while lymphomas had better survival. When compared with extracardiac tumors, PMCTs had worse survival.

Secondary

Secondary or

metastatic Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

heart tumours are much more common than primary heart tumours, occurring even 100 times more often. Every tumour in theory can metastasize to the heart with the only exception being tumours of the

central nervous system The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all p ...

. Malignant melanomas frequently metastasize to the heart, and represent the tumour with the highest rate of cardiac metastases (in more than half of cases).

Signs and symptoms

Patients with heart tumours usually have

non-specific symptoms Signs and symptoms are the observed or detectable signs, and experienced symptoms of an illness, injury, or condition. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature than normal, raised or lowered blood pressure or an abnormality showin ...

, such as

dyspnea Shortness of breath (SOB), also medically known as dyspnea (in AmE) or dyspnoea (in BrE), is an uncomfortable feeling of not being able to breathe well enough. The American Thoracic Society defines it as "a subjective experience of breathing disc ...

(in particular, shortness of breath when lying down), thoracoabdominal pain (pain in the general area around the heart), fatigue,

hemoptysis Hemoptysis is the coughing up of blood or blood-stained mucus from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs. In other words, it is the airway bleeding. This can occur with lung cancer, infections such as tuberculosis, bronchitis, or pneumonia ...

nausea Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. While not painful, it can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been described as placing discomfort on the chest, abdomen, or back of the ...

and

vomiting Vomiting (also known as emesis and throwing up) is the involuntary, forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenteri ...

fever Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a temperature above the normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature set point. There is not a single agreed-upon upper limit for normal temperature with sources using val ...

, weight loss, and night sweats. These symptoms mimic symptoms of other

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, ...

s, which can make diagnosis difficult.

Diagnosis

In most cases, the diagnosis is based on clinical history, echocardiography, a

CT scan A computed tomography scan (CT scan; formerly called computed axial tomography scan or CAT scan) is a medical imaging technique used to obtain detailed internal images of the body. The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers ...

or an MRI scan. Cardiac tumours are often first diagnosed after the patient has had a stroke, an embolism caused by detached tumour tissue.

Treatment

Primary tumours

Benign tumors

Most of these can be cured if the tumor can be completely removed. When a tumor is very large or there are multiple tumors, removing part of it that is not inside the heart walls can improve or eliminate symptoms. Some types can be followed with yearly echocardiograms instead of surgery if they are no longer causing symptoms.

Malignant tumors

Because they grow rapidly and invade important heart structures, they can be very difficult to treat. Unfortunately, most are not found until surgical removal is no longer possible. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are sometimes used to try to slow tumor growth and improve symptoms (palliative care), but frequently they are ineffective for primary heart cancer.

Secondary tumours

In most cases, patients with heart metastases have advanced tumour disease, with the heart being only one of the many places involved in the generalised tumour spread. At that stage of the disease, the patients will have already undergone extensive

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...

radiation therapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Rad ...

or surgical procedures. Cardiac treatment is usually confined to palliative measures.

Notable cases

* Henry VIII's first wife Catherine of Aragon's death is believed to have resulted from heart cancer. *

Eric Carr Paul Charles Caravello (July 12, 1950 – November 24, 1991), better known professionally as Eric Carr, was an American musician who was the drummer for the rock band Kiss from 1980 to 1991. Caravello was selected as the new Kiss drummer afte ...

, American musician; drummer of the rock band

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

, died of heart cancer. *

Alexander Belov Alexander Alexandrovich Belov, commonly known as Sasha Belov (November 9, 1951 – October 3, 1978), was a Soviet basketball player. During his playing career, he played at the center position. Belov is most remembered for scoring the game ...

, Soviet basketball player. * Mimi Lerner, Polish-American mezzo-soprano, died of heart tumor. *

Ondřej Buchtela Ondřej Buchtela (8 November 1999 – 24 July 2020) was a Czech professional ice hockey defenceman. Buchtela made his professional debut for Piráti Chomutov during the 2016–17 Czech Extraliga season and played a total of 27 regular season gam ...

, Czech professional ice hockey defenceman,

of the heart muscle. *

Virgil Abloh Virgil Abloh (; September 30, 1980 – November 28, 2021) was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. He was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilit ...

, artistic director for

Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury bags and lea ...

and founder of fashion label

Off White Shades of white are colors that differ only slightly from pure white. Variations of white include what are commonly termed off-white colors, which may be considered part of a neutral color scheme or yellow that looks like brown. In color theor ...

died of cardiac angiosarcoma.

References

External links

{{Heart and thymus neoplasia Heart neoplasia Rare cancers