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 ...
s,
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 ...
s,
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 fr ...
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 sarcom ...
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 ...
or
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
The Mayo Clinic () is a nonprofit American academic medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research. It employs over 4,500 physicians and scientists, along with another 58,400 administrative and allied health staff, ...
: "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 par ...
.
Malignant
melanoma
Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...
s 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 breathing, breathe well enough. The American Thoracic Society defines it as "a subjective experience of brea ...
(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, and ...
,
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 Human nose, nose.
Vomiting can be the result of ailments like Food-poisoning, foo ...
,
fever
Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a body temperature, temperature above the human body temperature, normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, set point. There is not a single ...
, 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, hea ...
s, which can make diagnosis difficult.
Diagnosis
In most cases, the diagnosis is based on clinical history, echocardiography, a
CT scan or an
MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves ...
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. Chemotherap ...
,
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. Radia ...
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 after ...
, 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, Czech professional ice hockey defenceman,
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 sarcom ...
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 responsibilitie ...
, artistic director for
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end Luxury goods, luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton (designer), Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its produc ...
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.
See also
*
Primary tumors of the heart
References
External links
{{Heart and thymus neoplasia
Heart neoplasia
Rare cancers