What to do if a tumor grows in the heart

Cardiac tumors are relatively rare in clinical practice, and the causes of cardiac tumors are many and complex. Benign cardiac tumors account for the majority. For cardiac tumors, if they are relatively small, grow and develop slowly, and do not cause too many symptoms in patients, conservative methods can be used for treatment. Of course, if the tumor grows and develops quickly, the best method is surgical treatment.

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Surgical resection is the treatment of choice for cardiac tumors, and the prognosis depends on the pathological type and extent of invasion of the tumor. As long as benign cardiac tumors can be removed, the prognosis is good, and the recurrence rate of myxomas is low.

Surgical treatment of malignant cardiac tumors can clarify the nature of the tumor, relieve mechanical obstruction, and alleviate patient symptoms. However, almost all malignant cardiac tumors have a poor prognosis. Surgical treatment is only palliative surgery and is prone to recurrence. The average survival time is 3 months to 1 year. Heart transplantation has many requirements and the results are uncertain. For cardiac lymphoma, chemotherapy is the only option.

Clinical manifestations

The clinical incidence of cardiac tumors is very low, but because the tumor grows in the heart, even benign tumors can cause heart failure due to obstruction of the heart cavity, or cause pulmonary and systemic embolism due to the detachment of tumors and thrombi, and even serious complications such as sudden death. The four most common clinical manifestations are:

1. Symptoms of blocked blood flow to the heart

Symptoms and signs caused by the cardiac tumor itself may include chest pain, syncope, congestive left and/or right heart failure, valvular stenosis or insufficiency, arrhythmia, conduction disorder, intracardiac shunt, constrictive pericarditis, bloody pericardial effusion or cardiac tamponade.

2. Systemic manifestations

Cardiac tumors can produce a wide range of noncardiac systemic manifestations, such as fever, anemia, weight loss, accelerated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and cachexia.

3. Arterial embolism

Clinical manifestations of embolism caused by fragments or thrombi on the surface of cardiac tumors include symptoms of systemic arterial and/or pulmonary artery embolism, such as hemiplegia and aphasia.

4. Abnormal electrocardiogram

Atrial fibrillation, tachycardia, right bundle branch block, atrial or ventricular enlargement, etc.