Лечение рака сердца

Herzliya Medical Center, Israel’s leading private clinic in Israel, diagnoses and successfully treats malignant heart tumors. The treatment of heart cancer in Israel is based on modern cardiac surgery techniques and highly effective complex therapy. Patients of the Herzliya Medical Center clinic are given the opportunity to undergo a full course of examination, treatment, rehabilitation and subsequent outpatient monitoring with the best cardiologists and oncologists in the country.

Types of Heart Tumors

Primary malignant tumors of the heart and secondary (metastatic) foci of tumors originating from other organs are isolated. Among the primary forms of cardiac oncology, it should be noted:

• Mesothelioma This malignant tumor develops from the cells of the heart sac — the pericardium. Like other malignant tumors, mesothelioma is capable of germinating in neighboring tissues and metastatic spread (more often to the spine and brain);
• Sarcoma of the heart. A tumor developing from connective tissue cells. Among heart sarcomas, angiosarcoma, fibrous histiocytoma, fibrosarcoma, leiomyosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma and undifferentiated heart sarcoma are distinguished;
• Primary lymphoma of the heart. This relatively rare form of lymphoma occurs mainly in patients with severe immunodeficiency (including those suffering from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). The tumor is characterized by rapid growth and is particularly aggressive in nature.

Causes of Heart Cancer

Oncologists continue to study the causes of malignant transformation of cells and the occurrence of cancerous heart tumors. Despite the fact that so far it has not been possible to unambiguously determine the causes of heart cancer, a hereditary predisposition to the development of this disease has been identified. Hereditary syndromes such as Carney complex and LAMB syndrome can be the cause of heart cancer. Genetics specialists at the Herzliya Medical Center clinic will help establish a hereditary relationship between the tumor and determine the risk of the disease in the patient’s closest relatives.

Heart cancer symptoms

Along with common signs of malignant intoxication, severe hemodynamic disturbances are symptoms of heart cancer. Symptoms of heart cancer depend on the location of the pathological focus:

• Pressure on the chambers of the heart and large vessels is characteristic of tumors located in the pericardial region. Compression is often the cause of impaired filling (cardiac tamponade) and a decrease in the efficiency of the heart with the development of progressive heart failure;
• Germination of a tumor in the muscle layer (myocardium) affects its contractile function, and is also often the cause of the development of arrhythmias (cardiac arrhythmias) due to damage to the conduction system of the heart. The tumor can also cause significant disturbances in coronary circulation and myocardial ischemia;
• Tumor growth in the chambers of the heart leads to a decrease in their functional volume and damage to the valve system, accompanied by the development of acquired heart defects.

Tumors of the heart significantly increase the risk of parietal blood clots and severe thromboembolic complications.

Diagnosis of heart cancer in Israel

In the presence of clinical suspicions of a heart tumor, the specialists of the Herzliya Medical Center hospital will conduct a complete diagnosis, which includes:

• Echocardiographic examination through the chest and / or esophagus. This ultrasound technique allows you to diagnose the vast majority of structural disorders, defects in the filling of the heart chambers, the presence of blood clots, as well as evaluate the function of the heart valves;
• Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging according to the protocols of the study of the heart. A tomographic scan is necessary to accurately assess the size and location of the tumor site;
• Positron emission tomography is important in the diagnosis of secondary heart tumors, as well as assessing the severity of the metastatic process
• Coronary angiography is used with appropriate indications (mainly for the purpose of differential diagnosis);
• A biopsy of a heart tumor often presents significant difficulties. The diagnostic value of the biopsy, the possibility and method of this procedure are decided by cardiac surgeons and oncologists at the Herzliya Medical Center clinic in a strictly individual order.

Heart Cancer Treatment at the Herzliya Medical Center Clinic

With a confirmed diagnosis of heart cancer, the possibility of radical removal of the tumor is considered. Herzliya Medical Center Hospital has open heart surgery of any degree of complexity. Unfortunately, a radical removal of the pathological process is possible only in cases where the tumor is localized in the pericardial region and is not invasive (does not grow into the muscle layer). The main treatment for heart cancer in Israel is chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The possibility of using biological, hormonal and targeted drugs depends on the histological type of tumor. In the treatment of cancer,  symptomatic therapy aimed at compensating for signs of heart failure and preventing thromboembolic complications and pain is also of great importance  .

Heart cancer: prognosis

Today, in the Herzliya Clinic, in most cases of heart cancer, the prognosis is quite favorable. Timely diagnosis and effective treatment of primary forms of heart cancer can achieve a significant percentage of recovery, prolonged remission and long-term patient survival.