Totaro P, Musto M. Overall approaches to cardiac tumors: Still an unsolved enigma? World J Clin Cases 2024; 12(19): 3654-3656 [PMID: 38994279 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i19.3654]
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Jul 6, 2024; 12(19): 3654-3656 Published online Jul 6, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i19.3654
Overall approaches to cardiac tumors: Still an unsolved enigma?
Pasquale Totaro, Martina Musto
Pasquale Totaro, Martina Musto, Division of Cardiac Surgery, Hospital Foundation "San Matteo", Pavia 27100, Italy
Author contributions: Both authors shared the contribution for the final version of this editorial comment. Totaro P oversaw the conception, drafting and conversion into the final version; he also took care of the supervision of bibliography; Musto M is an English language certified and provided proof editing and revision.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest for any of the authors.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Received: March 7, 2024 Revised: May 2, 2024 Accepted: May 16, 2024 Published online: July 6, 2024 Processing time: 113 Days and 21.7 Hours
Abstract
Cardiac tumors are neoplasms involving heart structures at any level, meaning the myocardium, valves, and cardiac chambers. When considering cardiac masses, it is not uncommon for surgeons to be surprised when they diagnose one. The real incidence of this complex group of diseases has been explored only after cardiac diagnostic tools became more appropriate. Despite differential diagnosis being relevant, surgical indication is usually requested for all malignant cardiac tumors and also for many types of benign tumors. The development of cardiac imaging techniques, therefore, has been the key point for a better understanding of the history of cardiac tumors and especially of the relevance of surgical indication in such conditions. Systematic and combined applications of echocardiography, cardiac computed tomography and magnetic resonance allow in the majority of case a clear definition of the nature of a newly discovered cardiac mass. The presence of a Li-Fraumeni syndrome seems to be the trigger aspect in accelerating the propensity of developing a cardiac tumor. Despite the revolutionary usefulness of the cardiac imaging techniques available, it is still considered a hazard to diagnose a malignant cardiac mass just with radiological imaging; the mainstay of the final diagnosis stands in surgical excision of the mass and histopathological report.
Core Tip: When considering cardiac masses, it is not uncommon for surgeons to be surprised when they diagnose one. Differential diagnosis with other benign masses is pivotal in order to give patients the best medical care. In order to do so, a mixture of some of the most used radiological resources need to be exploited, such as echocardiography, cardiac computed tomography and magnetic resonance.
