# Malignant cardiovascular neoplasm

- Category: chronic
- Review status: reviewed (every claim checked against a document named on this page)
- Sources: Cardiac Tumors - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537144/ · ICPC-3 (WONCA International Classification of Primary Care, 3rd edition) class KD25.01 - condition scope only, no dose · No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care
- Verified date: 2026-08

## Verified against

- No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care

## Treatment metadata

- No drug therapy in primary care (Referral & Advice)

## Complete treatment card

```text
MALIGNANT CARDIOVASCULAR NEOPLASM
Sources: Cardiac Tumors - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf -
         https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537144/ · ICPC-3 (WONCA International Classification
         of Primary Care, 3rd edition) class KD25.01 - condition scope only, no dose · No dose -
         referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care
Review status: REVIEWED against the source listed above  (2026-08)

IS IT THIS? - reference only, to read alongside your own examination
  SYMPTOMS - what the patient reports (4)
    - Symptoms are vague and creeping, which holds up diagnosis and surgery
    - Presentations include valve failure, pericardial effusion with tamponade, blocked flow inside
      the heart, arrhythmia and heart failure  [arrhythmia]
    - A growing share cause nothing at all and are found by chance
    - How it presents follows tumour size, where it sits, how fast it grows and how far it invades
  TESTS (12)
    - Unless the mass is taken out, most cannot be pinned down with certainty
    - Bedside echocardiogram is the first test, with sensitivity and specificity reaching 90%
    - A transoesophageal study adds character and site, and finds small masses the transthoracic
      view leaves unclear
    - Contrast echo separates a tumour from a clot in the heart
    - Cardiac MRI gauges size, site, mobility and the effect on neighbouring structures
    - Telling benign from malignant, cardiac MRI reached up to 79% accuracy in small groups of
      patients
    - Late gadolinium picks up extracellular matrix; no uptake points instead to a clot
    - Fat suppression sequences pick out fatty tumours such as lipoma and liposarcoma
    - CT reads the mass and its neighbours, judging nature from x-ray attenuation, and shows calcium
    - Catheter study shows invasion of the epicardial vessels and, on ventriculography, spread into
      the ventricle
    - Right-sided lesions are the ones sampled; sampling a left-sided one risks perforation and clot
      showering off
    - Image guidance raises biopsy yield; fluid drawn from the pericardium can also be sent for
      cytology
  IF NOT THIS - what else fits (4)
    - A mass in the heart may instead be a clot or a vegetation
    - With an implanted device or prosthesis plus infection, vegetation moves up the list
    - In a cancer patient, heart failure may be chemotherapy toxicity and needs settling before
      spread is assumed
    - Infection itself can throw up masses or fluid around the heart, so send microbiology
  Source  StatPearls "Cardiac Tumors" - disease-level clinical article
  Status  traced to the source above

1. NO DRUG THERAPY IN PRIMARY CARE (REFERRAL & ADVICE)    [1st line]
   Adult    Primary cardiac or vascular malignancy (for example angiosarcoma) is very rare and
            requires urgent oncology and cardiothoracic referral; nothing is prescribed in primary
            care. - Refer, with advice
   Peds     Children follow the same pathway: recognise and refer. No primary-care medicine is
            implied.
   Source   No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care
   Why      Primary cardiac or vascular malignancy (for example angiosarcoma) is very rare and
            requires urgent oncology and cardiothoracic referral; nothing is prescribed in primary
            care.
   Caution  Rapidly progressive heart failure, pericardial effusion, or unexplained systemic
            symptoms with a cardiac mass need urgent same-service referral.
            Rare in Egyptian primary care.
            No medicine is prescribed for this in primary care - this entry is for recognition and
            referral. Anything given is decided by the service it is referred to.

Prices are indicative (dataset snapshot 2026-06); verify with the pharmacy.
```

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