Cardiac Tumors: Diagnosis and Management Techniques

Cardiac tumours are rare neoplasms that arise within the heart chambers or pericardial spaces, encompassing primary benign lesions such as myxomas and papillary fibroelastomas, and primary malignant forms including sarcomas and lymphomas, as well as secondary metastatic deposits. Although infrequent, their clinical impact is significant due to risks of local obstruction, embolisation and arrhythmia. Early recognition combines clinical assessment with multimodal non-invasive imaging—transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography—to characterise morphology, vascularity and tissue composition, guiding decisions on biopsy and surgical intervention. Functional imaging with positron emission tomography provides metabolic insights that aid differentiation of benign from malignant masses. Advances in molecular profiling and single-cell technologies are illuminating the immune microenvironment and tumour heterogeneity, revealing targets for novel therapies. Definitive management often requires complete surgical resection; adjunctive treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy or targeted biologics may be employed for malignant or residual disease. A multidisciplinary approach involving cardiology, cardiac surgery, radiology and oncology ensures optimisation of diagnostic accuracy, individualised treatment planning and improved patient outcomes.

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Cardiac Tumors: Diagnosis and Management Techniques publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in cardiac tumors: diagnosis and management techniques across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Primary cardiac tumour: A neoplasm originating in the heart, often benign and requiring surgical excision.

Metastatic cardiac tumour: Secondary involvement of the heart by spread from malignancies elsewhere in the body.

Echocardiography: Ultrasound imaging of the heart chambers and valves, first-line for detecting intracardiac masses.

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging: Non-invasive imaging that characterises tissue composition and vascularity of cardiac lesions.

Positron emission tomography: Functional imaging modality measuring metabolic activity to distinguish benign from malignant tissues.

Single-cell sequencing: High-resolution technique to analyse gene expression in individual cells within a tumour microenvironment.

Standardised uptake value (SUVmax): Semi-quantitative PET metric reflecting maximum metabolic activity within a lesion.

References

1. Revealing the crucial roles of suppressive immune microenvironment in cardiac myxoma progression. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy (2024).
2. Cardiac tumors: Updated classifications and main clinico-pathologic findings. Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine (2025).
3. [18F]FDG PET imaging in the differentiation of cardiac masses: an updated systematic review and dual Meta-Analysis of diagnostic performance and parameter variability. European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (2025).