Cardiac Tumours Prevalence Symptoms And Management

One of the most dreadful of diseases mankind has witnessed, whose draconian treatment is as painful as the suffering it brings, making the affected individual weary and helpless, is Cancer. Even if you don't drink alcohol or get involved in substance abuse, a gene switch is all it takes for your body cells to turn up against you, and proliferate abnormally without halting, appearing with dreary cancers of breast, colon, blood, lung, etc. Cancers of all kinds have been heard, talked about, and researched upon, but cancers emanating from the Heart are widely researched, and are generally less talked upon, thus lack awareness.

Any body cell carries the potential to become cancerous if their DNA gets mutated, and heart is no exception. Though rare, but abnormal cell growth originating in the heart or its components is called Cardiac tumour. Which may begin near the heart in organs like lungs or spread to the cardiac cells via bloodstream after originating from elsewhere in the body.

Cardiac Tumours Types
' Primary tumours - Heart being the site of origin, these rare cancers often affect the heart lining and valves and can be classified as non-cancerous and cancerous primary heart tumours.

Why are Cardiac Tumours rare?
Several mutations lead a cancerous cell to become invasive which occur mostly when these cells divide and replicate their DNA to their daughter cells. Heart cells function by pumping blood to different parts of the body and don't replicate throughout one's life to make new cardiac cells, until an injury strikes. Therefore, this limited capacity of cell division and proliferation decreases the chances of mutations to be passed onto daughter cells, making cardiac tumors a rare phenomenon.

' Secondary tumours -
These are more commonly observed and are formed when tumour cells that develop from another body part like lungs, breast, stomach, kidneys, etc. and move to the heart.

Any cardiac tumour poses various risks over time if remains unidentified, resulting into lifethreatening dangerous complications like blocking blood flow causing heart failure, blood clots and stroke.

How are Cardiac Tumours identified?
Any cardiac tumour initially is asymptomatic, but manifests with general symptoms mimicking other heart ailments, like
' Chest pain/tightness
' Breathing difficulties
' Rapid or irregular heart rate
' Fatigue and dizziness
' Heart palpitations
' Inflammation with fever
' Unexpected weight gain
' Swelling in feet and ankles
Such general symptoms, when exist for a long time and don't subside even with treatments, cause heart murmurs, abnormal heart rhythms or unexplained symptoms of heart failure. These usually prompt a doctor in case of suspected cardiac tumour, to confirm with various specialised screening tests like echocardiogram to identify the presence of tumour masses along with performing Computed Tomography (CT Scans) or Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to visualise the exact location of tumours (if any).

Treatment of Cardiac Tumours
Radiation, chemotherapy and surgeries to remove cancer cells are a few treatment modalities for such cancer patients, however a successful/healthful recovery remains subjective to severity of tumour and efficiency of prescribed treatment.

What exactly causes these aberrant growths in heart is still unknown, but an abnormal regulation of cell division with immune system irregularities, exposure to viruses, radiation, substances like tobacco and benzene or just inheriting the culprit gene, may shovel the path to Cardiac tumour. Heart is not exposed to carcinogens openly, therefore chances of acquiring a cardiac tumour is rare but it still can't be prevented which makes a prompt and timely diagnosis the only way to manage if it strikes!