Cardiac rhabdomyosarcoma is an extremely rare malignancy with a poor prognosis despite surgical and medical interventions, best diagnosed noninvasively via 2D echocardiography and NMR.
Noninvasive imaging aids diagnosis of cardiac rhabdomyosarcoma; leaves open whether novel therapies can improve survival beyond one year.
A patient with a cardiac rhabdomyosarcoma illustrates the clinical and pathologic features of this extremely rare malignancy. Presenting manifestations are variable and nonspecific. The two-dimensional echocardiogram is the best noninvasive means of diagnosi n g cardiac tumors. The nuclear magnetic resonance scan accurately demonstrated the presence and location of the intracardiac mass lesion. Pathologically, rhabdomyosarcomas require light and electron microscopic examination to establish the tumor type. Surgical resection, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy do not appear to alter the natural history, and death usually occurs within one year of diagnosis.
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Becker et al. (1984) studied this question.
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