Cardiac angiosarcoma revealed by lung metastases

Cardiac angiosarcoma is a rare tumour with very poor prognosis especially in patients with metastatic disease. We present the case of a 43 year old patient with angiosarcoma revealed by open lung biopsy for multiple pulmonary metastases. Cardiac symptoms were limited to a moderate pericarditis and no echocardiographic sign of heart tumour was observed. The clinical outcome was rapidly fatal despite chemotherapy. The cardiac primary tumour was diagnosed at autopsy. We emphasize the difficulties of diagnosing cardiac angiosarcoma and confirm the limited value of echocardiography for this diagnosis.