Cardiac angiosarcoma usually develops in the right atrium and then involves the pericardium and develops into metastases
The tumor that struck Genoese Sofia Sacchitelli, 23, a medical student, is cardiac angiosarcoma. What is it about? Angiosarcoma, in general, a malignant tumor: it originates in the endothelial cells of blood vessels, which proliferate forming atypical vascular structures. rare and mainly affects young people. The site most frequently affected the udderbut it can also appear elsewhere: in the lower limbs, on the skin or in deep organs. it is a highly malignant type of cancer, which tends to spread rapidly in the body. Cardiac angiosarcoma is a rare form of angiosarcoma that affects the walls of the heart: it usually develops in the right atrium and then involves the pericardium and develops metastasisespecially in the lungs.
Cardiac angiosarcoma it can remain asymptomatic until it reaches significant dimensions or involves nearby structures. If present, symptoms may include difficulty breathing, weight loss, fatigue, and pain; cardiological symptoms more specific, which generally appear later, can be arrhythmias, valvular stenosis, heart failure, pulmonary embolisms, pericardial effusion and lesions of the walls of the heart. Cardiac angiosarcoma often has bad prognosis and treatments can include various combinations of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapyin many cases carried out exclusively for palliative purposes.
Heart tumors are divided into two categories: primitives (which originate from the heart cells themselves) e secondary (metastasis from cancerous masses that have affected other parts of the body). Primary neoplasms are diagnosed in such low percentages that there are no official statistics on their diffusion. Instead, they are much more frequent secondary heart tumours, which often, however, are limited and not serious. It is estimated that about 15 percent of cancer patients, in the most advanced stages of the disease, have a metastasis to the heart or to the thin membrane that covers it, the pericardium.
March 1, 2023 (change March 1, 2023 | 7:47 pm)
© Time.News