Cardiac angiosarcoma: A diagnostic and therapeutic challenge

Cardiac angiosarcoma treated with 1.5 Tesla MR-guided adaptive stereotactic body radiotherapy – Case report and review of the literature

“…However, depending on the location of tumor or the presence of distant metastases at diagnosis, surgery may not be an option for some patients. In such cases, combined modality therapies combining RT and chemotherapy have emerged as a viable alternative [13] .…”

“…SBRT, a well-established method for the ablative treatment, can deliver large doses of radiation in a small number of fractions for RT treatments within sensitive surrounding organs such as the heart. Numerous case reports and small case series detailing their treatment of primary heart sarcomas have been published [3] , [5] , [6] , [13] , [16] ( Table 1 ). However, only a small number of cases utilized ultrahypofractionated SBRT [6] , [7] , and none utilized the simultaneous integrated boost technique to administer higher doses to gross lesions.…”

Case Report: An Unusual Cause for Recurrent Hemopericardium in a Patient With Dyspnea

“…Primary cardiac tumors are extremely rare with an autopsy incidence of <0.06% ( 1 , 2 ) of which one quarter turns out to be malignant. Angiosarcoma is the most common primary cardiac malignancy ( 5 ) and has been first reported in 1934 by Barnes et al ( 6 ).…”

“…Early diagnosis of cardiac angiosarcoma is difficult. Non-specific symptoms and disease rarity often prevent clinicians from inclusion in the initial differential diagnosis ( 2 ).…”

“…The etiology of pericardial effusion varies widely but often remains unknown. Primary cardiac tumors are extremely rare ( 1 , 2 ) and often go undetected until a late stage of the disease.…”