Long-term disease-free survival of patients with primary cardiac lymphoma treated with systemic chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Primary cardiac lymphoma (PCL) is a rare disease entity with only a few reported cases in Korea. In this paper, we report a case of PCL in a 59-year-old man presenting with chest pain. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was diagnosed through a cardiac catheterization-assisted percutaneous endomyocardial biopsy, and there was no evidence of extracardiac involvement of the lymphoma.The patient had a complete clinical response after systemic chemotherapy with a rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone (R-CHOP) regimen and additional post-chemotherapeutic radiation therapy. The patient experienced a long-term disease-free survival of over 4 years. However, he received coronary artery bypass graft surgery due to an acute myocardial infarction that occurred 3 years after the completion of the radiation therapy. Although the addition of radiation therapy to the treatment is thought to decrease the risk of relapse in patients with PCL, a careful and thorough consideration of the potential complications of radiation therapy, particularly with respect to cardiac complications, should be considered.
Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Dong-Yeop
DY
Shin
Yun-Gyoo
YG
Lee
Hyun-Jung
HJ
Lee
Seyoun
S
Choi
Jin Joo
JJ
Park
Dong-Wan
DW
Kim
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