Primary cardiac diffuse, large B-cell lymphoma in an immunocompetent patient

Primary cardiac non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is defined as being exclusively located in the heart and/or pericardium, and is extremely rare. This disease occurs mainly in immunocompromised patients and rarely in the immunocompetent. To date, 35 cases of primary cardiac non-Hodgkin's lymphoma have been reported in the literature by Chalabreysse et al in 2002, and 22 of these cases were diffuse, large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). We report a rare case of an immunocompetent female with no significant medical history who presented with dyspnea, chest pain and the beginnings of an SVC syndrome. The patient was initially diagnosed with primary cardiac Burkitt's lymphoma when surgical pathology was reviewed. After further investigation by another pathology lab, the tumor was defined as DLBCL, which was confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridization techniques.