Primary cardiac carcinosarcoma: A rare, aggressive tumor

Primary cardiac carcinosarcoma is a rare cardiac tumor, and little is known about its natural history. We treated a man who had no evidence of a cardi ac mass at initial echocardiography, but 19 months later he had a large bia trial tumor with left ventricular inflow obstruction. Only palliative resec tion could be achieved. Four months postoperatively extensive tumor recurre nce was found, and he died a month later. Histologic examination showed cel ls with features of both rhabdomyosarcoma and adenocarcinoma, and the tumor was classified as a primary cardiac carcinosarcoma. (C) 2001 by The Societ y of Thoracic Surgeons.