Primary malignant cardiac tumors: Sex‐related therapy and multidisciplinary approach as a new challenge for the future

Abstract

Primary malignant cardiac tumors represent (PMCTs) a very rare disease with an incidence of 0.009%1 (up to 10% of primary cardiac neoplasms) and are related to a very poor prognosis. The study by Mohamed Rahouma tries to give us information on sex differences in PMCTs, their incidence, behavior, and outcomes. Females were significantly older and had a lower stage of cancer. Males are known to have a more aggressive course and present at an earlier age. Sarcoma is the most common type of PMCTs in both males and females. There was no gender disparity in late mortality and patients who underwent surgery had a better prognosis than those who did not undergo surgery. Significant predictors of late mortality were found to be patients’ high comorbidity index, angiosarcoma histology, and Stage III/IV. A challenge for cardiac surgeons is to improve survival in patients with cardiac malignancies, involving a multidisciplinary approach with oncologists, cardiologists, and radiologists. To pave the way for a significant improvement in survival in the future, more advanced sex‐specific medical therapies for cancer such as novel chemotherapy agents, targeted immune therapies, genetic engineering need to be standardized to PMCTs and combined with radiological therapies such as gamma‐knife and very advanced surgery to effectively treat even very aggressive forms of malignant tumors, with a significant impact on the patient's quality of life and survival.

Cardiac metastasis from small cell lung cancer origin: A case report and review of the literature

“…Around 75%–90% of primary cardiac tumors are benign, 1 , 3 , 8 , 9 while MCTs occur at 20 times the frequency of primary cardiac tumors. 8 , 9 Improved diagnostic and therapeutic modalities have led to increased identification of MCT.…”

“…Primary malignant cardiac tumors are rare with an incidence of 0.009% while metastatic cardiac tumors (MCT) are more common at 1.8%. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 Whereas any type of cancer may spread to the heart, the most frequent origins of MCTs are malignant melanoma and leukemia. 4 Cardiac metastases arising from breast, head and neck and colon cancer have been reviewed elsewhere.…”