Cardiac angiosarcoma: Utility of FDG PET-CT

What is it about?

Cardiac angiosarcomas are a rare form of malignancy. The majority of cases arise from the right atrium as mural masses. These tumors have extremely aggressive behavior, with early clinical symptoms that vary depending on location, size, and extent of the tumor. Most of these patients have a very short survival time. Surgical therapy is considered the best choice of therapy approach in cardiac angiosarcoma patients with nonmetastatic disease, even though the disease is rarely cured. Advanced diagnostic techniques facilitate accurate, noninvasive assessments of cardiac sarcomas. We report a case of a 62-year-old man with cardiac angiosarcoma who had multiple distant metastases that were revealed by [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography imaging.

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Why is it important?

Most of patients with cardiac angiosarcoma have a very short survival time. Surgical therapy is considered as the best choice of therapy approach in patients with nonmetastatic disease, even though the disease is rarely cured. FDG PET-CT provide whole body evaluation to facilitate accurate, noninvasive assessments of cardiac sarcomas.

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