Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 6, 2024; 12(28): 6132-6136
Published online Oct 6, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i28.6132
Approach to cardiac masses: Thinking inside and outside the box
Elia De Maria
Elia De Maria, Chief of Arrhythmology Lab, Cardiology Unit, Ramazzini Hospital, Carpi 41012, Modena, Italy
Author contributions: De Maria E contributed the study concept, writing and critical revision of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author has no conflict of interest to declare.
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/
Corresponding author: Elia De Maria, MD, Chief Doctor, Consultant Physician-Scientist, Doctor, Chief of Arrhythmology Lab, Cardiology Unit, Ramazzini Hospital, Via Molinari 1, Carpi 41012, Modena, Italy. e.demaria@inwind.it
Received: March 3, 2024
Revised: June 5, 2024
Accepted: June 26, 2024
Published online: October 6, 2024
Processing time: 162 Days and 8.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Cardiac masses pose significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. Multimodality imaging is fundamental for diagnosis, treatment, and surgical planning. Different flow charts of diagnostic work-up have been proposed to help physicians approach the problem in a pragmatic way (“thinking inside the box”). However, the clinical complexity of cancer patients, in particular those with rare syndromes, requires an open mind to go beyond diagnostic algorithms, and the ability to “think outside the box.”