A cardiac tumor is rare but dangerous

Although heart diseases are for the most deaths, and cancer is the second, heart cancer is a very rare and little researched disease. Why the heart is so rarely affected by tumor disease, explain American heart specialists.

The American heart organization American Heart Association recently reported on the rare case of illness of the Jan Mitchell from Tennessee. The 62-Year-old had a tumour on the heart that was almost as big as a tennis ball.

It started with an unreal fatigue

“The fatigue I went through, it was unreal,” says Mitchell in a recent report by the American Heart Association. The exhaustion was so great that the woman was from Tennessee absolutely no energy to do anything after she came home from work. To go this condition, she sought help from Physicians.

Doctors

Mitchell visited a doctor after the other. It has been studied countless times, underwent a stress test and was sent to the sleep laboratory with suspected sleep apnea (breathing pauses), without success. Finally, the Doctors suspected gall bladder as the culprit, and conducted a computed tomography. The image technician then discovered by chance during a CT scan of the Tumor on the heart.

Heart tumors are extremely rare

About heart cancer is, as yet, rather little is known. There is a study stating that less than two per develop 100,000 people per year, such a Tumor. “A heart surgeon you may get during his whole career, a single to face,” says cardio-oncologist, Dr. Monika Leja from the Frankel Cardiovascular Center at the University of Michigan.

Cardiac tumors are mostly benign

About three-quarters of cardiac tumors are benign, more reported, the heart specialist. Tumors of this type are rare metastases. However, they are very dangerous. The speed of the natural heart can restrict the bead function. In addition, can remove parts of the tumor, and a sudden stroke. These tumors are usually removed immediately operational after they are discovered.

Why heart cancer is so rare

“The heart consists of connective tissue, and cancer in this tissue is rare,” adds Dr. Scott Schuetze from the Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Michigan. Tumor diseases in the first place in the so-called epithelial tissue wide that proliferated in organs such as prostate, breast, colon, pancreas, stomach, and esophagus, as well as in the skin.

The heart is more susceptible to diseases of the blood vessels

“Because the heart for its working depends extremely from the blood flow, it is more prone to diseases related to the blood vessels,” says the expert. This includes diseases such as high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). (vb)