Neoplastic Involvement of the Heart

Tumors of the heart and pericardium are rare as either secondary or primary growths. Still rarer is the opportunity to see this type of case and to diagnose it during life. Two such cases were admitted to the medical wards of the University Hospital during the first four months of 1936 and in both of them the correct diagnosis was made. The literature reveals only five cases of secondary tumors of the heart diagnosed before death. Three of these were diagnosed on the basis of cardiac irregularity in patients with extensive neoplastic involvement of other regions of the body;¹one patient was a young girl in whom symptoms of cardiac embarrassment developed some time after the removal of a sarcoma of the lower extremity.²To this group of cases are added the two reported here. REPORT OF CASES Case 1. —History. —A white woman, aged 31, was admitted to the medical