Primary Benign Tumor of the Heart of Forty-Three Years' Duration

Tumors of the heart are rare. A large series of autopsy reports (approximately 40,000 cases) show that metastatic growths in the heart occur in approximately 0.5 per cent of cases, whereas primary tumors are found in 0.03 per cent (Yater¹and Mead²). On the other hand, studies of cases of malignant growth with disseminated metastases reveal an incidence of about 7.5 per cent in cases of cardiac involvement (Yater,¹Burke³). Metastatic tumors have been reported as diagnosed during life in only 10 cases, the first by Roesler,⁴in 1924, and all the others since 1930 (Heninger,⁵Willius and Amberg,⁶Fishberg,⁷Schnitker and Bailey,⁸Doane and Solis-Cohen,⁹Smith¹⁰). Such tumors may involve any part of the heart, but especially the right auricle. They have been described as arising from almost any type of malignant tumor anywhere in the body. Usually they produce no symptoms and are found