Right Sided Reconstruction of the Heart for Invasive Angiosarcoma of the Right Atrium

Elien Brouwers, Marie-Christine Herregods, Eric Verbeken, Paul Herijgers and Wouter Oosterlinck

Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, Cardiology, University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium
Department of Imaging and Pathology, University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium
Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, research unit of Cardiac Surgery, University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium

^*Correspondance to: Wouter Oosterlinck 

 PDF  Full Text DOI: 10.25107/2474-1647.1460

Abstract

A 35-year old male presented with new diagnosis of cardiac angiosarcoma. We describe the case, diagnosis, treatment modalities and first observations concerning survival. Overall, cardiac sarcomas are a rare entity. There are several subtypes of sarcomas and the angiosarcoma is the most common type of heart sarcomas in adults, especially in male population. The symptoms of cardiac sarcomas are non-specific and depend on the size of the tumor, the anatomical localization, the myocardial involvement and the presence of metastatic disease. Dyspnea is the most common symptom by diagnosis. The number of angiosarcomas diagnosed, has increased since non-invasive imaging (echocardiography, MRI, CT) has improved in quality.Final diagnosis can only be made by cytological and immunohistochemical examination.Once the diagnosis has been established, the therapy has to be started as soon as possible. Most important in the treatment of sarcomas is a complete surgical resection, as this gives the most successful disease-free survival. Until now, the role of chemotherapy is unclear. Unfortunately, the prognosis of cardiac sarcomas is poor.The median time to relapse is longer in patients with angiosarcoma than other sarcomas.

Keywords

Angiosarcoma; Cardiac malignancy; Cardiac tumor; Diagnosis; Treatment

Cite the article

Brouwers E, Herregods M-C, Verbeken E, Herijgers P, Oosterlinck W. Right Sided Reconstruction of the Heart for Invasive Angiosarcoma of the Right Atrium. Clin Surg. 2017; 2: 1460.