Primary cardiac angiosarcoma. A therapeutical dilemma.
Cardiac angiosarcomas are malignant tumors that almost invariably have a short and fatal evolution. The therapeutic approach includes surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, alone or in combination. Heart transplantation is an attractive option in nonresectable tumors, even though the current experience is still limited. However, in most patients, the diagnosis is still established late, and survival is only slightly altered by the proposed treatments, mainly due to previously existing and undetected metastases. We report a case that illustrates the therapeutic dilemma faced with this neoplasia, and we discuss the case based on a literature review.
Hospital São Francisco, Santa Casa de Porto Alegre. dariofrota@cardiol.br
José Dario
JD
Frota Filho
Fernando A
FA
Lucchese
Paulo
P
Leães
Luís Antônio
LA
Valente
Mariana S
MS
Vieira
Celso
C
Blacher
D000368:Aged; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006394:Hemangiosarcoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans