[Primary malignant cardiac tumors]

Primary tumours of the heart are extremely rare, occurring in only 0.0017 to 0.28 per cent of large postmortem series. About only one-forth of all cardiac tumors are malignant. Modern techniques of diagnosis and surgical treatment have changed the benign cardiac tumor from a curiosity found at postmortem examination to an almost uniformly curable form of heart disease. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for malignant cardiac tumors, which are both rare and almost always fatal. We reviewed the medical literature to summarize all cases of primary malignant tumors of the heart. Recently it has been pointed out that better survival in this group of patients could be a result of prompt diagnosis and treatment. Surgical intervention is rarely of benefit except for establishing a tissue diagnosis. On the contrary, survival may be enhanced by irradiation and probably by chemotherapy (sometimes as postoperative procedures).