Metastatic involvement of the heart in childhood rhabdomyosarcoma

Abstract

Eight of 23 patients who succumbed with childhood rhabdomyosarcoma had metastases to the heart. Each of these eight patients had metastatic tumor in the visceral pericardium, and seven patients had metastases in the myocardium. These eight patients exhibited extensive involvement of the skull, long bones, lungs, lymph nodes, and bone marrow. In two of these eight patients, cardiac tumor with intractable congestive heart failure contributed to death. Three additional patients had pericardial effusions secondary to neoplasm. The presence of rhabdomyosarcoma cells in antemortem bone marrow aspirates was noted in each case associated with postmortem findings of extensive metastatic tumor, including metastases to the heart. Although the endocardium was frequently infiltrated by tumor, the conduction tissue was spared and ventricular activation usually occurred in a normal manner. Copyright © 1973 American Cancer Society