Cardiac Neoplasms.
Surgical resection is usually the only form of curative therapy available for primary cardiac neoplasms. Benign tumors can often be completely removed with few complications and a low mortality rate, but complete resection is possible for fewer than half of primary malignant tumors. Radiation therapy plays an adjunct and palliative role in treatment. The outcome of chemotherapy, the dominant treatment method, is poor. Sarcomas are inherently chemoresistant and show a response rate of less than 50%. Lymphomas present late and respond poorly. Cardiectomy and cardiac transplantation may cure unresectable benign cardiac tumors or, rarely, malignant ones.
Rosenberg
FM
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, St. Paul's Hospital, 1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6Z 1Y6.
Chan
A
Lichtenstein
SV
McManus
BM