Outcomes after surgical resection of cardiac sarcoma in the multimodality treatment era.

OBJECTIVE: Primary cardiac sarcomas are rare tumors carrying poor prognosis. Resection remains the primary therapy. Especially in recent years, chemotherapy and radiation have been used adjunctively.

METHODS: All patients (n = 27) surgically treated for primary cardiac sarcoma at two tertiary referral centers from January 1990 to January 2006 were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS: There were 13 women and 14 men, with 26 resections and 1 palliative debulking performed. Cardiac explantation was necessary in 8 cases because of tumor location. Concomitant valve surgery (repair or replacement) or coronary artery bypass grafting was performed in 9 and 3 patients, respectively. Synchronous or staged resections of associated pulmonary metastases were performed in 6 and 2 patients, respectively. Operative mortality was 7.4% (2/27). Preoperative or postoperative chemotherapy was administered to 16 and 19 patients, respectively. At follow-up (median 22 months, range, 2-119 months), 12 patients were alive, with 7 tumor free. Among patients who underwent resection with curative intent and survived surgery (n = 24), median survival was 23.5 months (range 4-119 months). Patients who underwent surgical resection, radiofrequency ablation, or radiation treatment for tumor recurrence (local or metastatic, n = 7) had median survival of 47 months (range 16-119 months), whereas patients with no further intervention for recurrent disease (n = 7) had median survival of 25 months (range 8-34 months).

CONCLUSIONS: Multimodal therapy can achieve reasonable survival for patients with resected cardiac sarcomas. Patients with local tumor recurrence or metastatic disease may still benefit from aggressive treatment.