SECONDARY TUMORS OF HEART AND PERICARDIUM

Abstract

HEKTOEN,¹ in 1893, while reporting two cases of secondary tumors of the heart, stated that 110 such cases had already been recorded. Despite this relatively impressive number and the numerous reports since that time, the recent literature contains references to the considered rarity of these tumors (Fischer,² Lymburner³). Several lengthy statistical reports on the subject have appeared in the literature since the turn of the century (Peters and Milne,⁴ Morris,⁵ Yater,⁶ Hamilton,⁷ Pollia and Gogol,⁸ Scott and Garvin,⁹ Lisa and associates,¹⁰ Prichard¹¹). Siegel and Young,¹² in 1933, reported 3 cases of metastatic tumors in 44 cases of malignant disease (7.4%) among 592 autopsies. Burke,¹³ in 1934, in an analysis of 327 autopsies for malignant disease, observed 14 instances of metastatic involvement of cardiac muscle (4.3%). In the same year, Lymburner³ noted 52 secondary tumors of the heart in a review of 8,550 autopsies at the Mayo Clinic (0.6% for all