Multimodality treatment of primary cardiac angiosarcoma: A systematic literature review

Primary cardiac neoplasms are rare entities with an incidence of 1.38 per 100,000 and occur more than 30 times less frequent than metastatic disease of the heart [1,2]. In adults, approximately one fourth of the primary cardiac tumors are malignant, with 75% – 95% of them being sarcomas [3–5]. Angiosarcoma has been recognized as a common primary cardiac sarcoma (PCS) histology arising preferentially in the right atrium between the third and the fifth decade of life [2–8]. The fact that angiosarcomas tend to be bulky, infiltrate the cardiac muscle, and metastasize early (especially to the lungs) in conjunction with non-specific symptoms, may delay diagnosis resulting in more advanced disease at the time of treatment commencement [8–10].
Source: Cancer Treatment Reviews - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Systematic or Meta-analysis Studies Source Type: research