Primary cardiac tumors: a spectrum of pathologies and scenarios

Abstract
Background
Cardiac tumors are rare, and their diagnosis is challenging. The level of evidence for the management of cardiac tumors came from case reports or small case series. We aim to present our multicenter experience in the diagnosis and management of cardiac tumors.

Results
We performed a prospective study, including 82 cases of cardiac tumors encountered at three centers in 5 years. The mean age was 62 ± 5.8 years old (range 2 months–74 years), and 91.4% were females constituted. The median EuroSCORE II was 4.27%. All cases underwent radical excision of the tumor. Five cases underwent additional mitral valve replacement and one case underwent coronary bypass grafting. Pathological diagnoses were left atrial myxomas (n = 65, 79.3%), right atrial myxomas (n = 5, 6.1%), bi-atrial myxomas (n = 2, 2.4%), right ventricular outflow tract myxoma (n = 1, 1.2%), myxosarcoma (n = 1, 1.2%), thymoma (n = 1, 1.2%), recurrent hemangioendothelioma (n = 1, 1.2%), round cell tumor (n = 1, 1.2%), cardiac lymphoma (n = 1, 1.2%), rhabdomyomas (n = 2, 2.4%), and renal cell carcinomas (n = 2, 2.4%). Two patients (2.4%) had re-exploration for bleeding. One patient (1.2%) with right atrial thymoma experienced a severe vasoplegia with unstable hemodynamics. Two patients had operative mortality (2.4%), one with recurrent cardiac hemangioendothelioma. During 1-year follow-up, one patient (1.2%) died because of metastatic myosarcoma. Recurrence was reported in 2 patients (2.4%).

Conclusions
The clinical scenario of cardiac tumors depends mainly on tumor location and size rather than the histopathology. Surgical resection is feasible in benign tumors while very challenging in malignant tumors.