Procedure

Heart Tumor Treatment- Cancer/Oncology, Cardiology

Doctors: Cardiologist, Cardiac Surgeon

What is heart tumor?

Heart tumor, also known as cardiac tumor, is an abnormal growth of tissue in the heart. Heart tumor can be either cancerous (malignant) or non-cancerous (benign). Benign heart tumours are much more common than malignant heart tumours.

Heart tumors can be also classified as either primary heart tumor or secondary heart tumor.

  • Primary heart tumor means that the tumor originated in theheart
  • Secondary (also known as metastatic) heart tumor means that the tumor is a result of cancer that has spread from another organ to the heart.

Some tumors cause no symtoms at all whereas some tumors cause non-specific symptoms.

What are the treatment options?

Treatment involves a detailed diagnostic workup to completely characterize the tumor in order to understand the type of tumor, its size as well as anatomic location. Treatment options depend on the type of the heart tumor.

  • Treatment for benign heart tumors: Some benign tumours do not require treatment. However, if symptoms occur due to benign tumors, an open heart surgery is done to remove these tumors.
  • Treatment for malignant tumors: Following treatment options are recommended for malignant tumors.
    • Medicines
    • Chemotherapy
    • Radiation therapy
    • Surgery is considered in specific severe cases as it is complicated and once the tumor is removed, heart tissue may need to be restructured.

References:

  • http://columbiasurgery.org/conditions-and-treatments/cardiac-tumor
  • http://columbiasurgery.org/cardiac-tumor/how-cardiac-tumor-treated
  • https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/medical/all-about-cardiac-tumours

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About the Author:

Dr. Anand Lakhkar is a physician scientist from India. He completed his basic medical education from India and his postgraduate training in pharmacology from the United States. He has a MS degree in pharmacology from New York Medical College, a MS degree in Cancer/Neuro Pharmacology from Georgetown University and a PhD in Pharmacology from New York Medical College where he was the recipient of the Graduate Faculty Council Award for academic and research excellence.  His research area of expertise is in pulmonary hypertension, traumatic brain injury and cardiovascular pharmacology.  He has multiple publications in international peer-reviewed journals and has presented his research at at prestigious conferences.