Pathology of cardiac tumours and tumour-like conditions

Tumours involving the heart range from tumour-like conditions to neoplastic processes that can be benign or malignant. The initial signs and symptoms of any given mass are usually related to the anatomic location and size, rather than the histologic type, and even benign proliferations can pose serious risk of sudden death, arrhythmias and embolization to other sites. The main imaging modalities for evaluating primary cardiac tumours are echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT). Treatment of cardiac tumours must often be tailored to the individual patient, as data from series of specific lesions are often not available. Cardiac myxomas represent the great majority of heart tumours comprising more than 90% of reported cases. The remainder of the cases forms a varied group of benign and malignant lesions. In this review, the clinical and histopathological features of the most important tumours arising in the heart are summarized, and illustrations of specific entities are provided.