Cardiac angiosarcoma: utility of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography–computed tomography in evaluation of residue, metastases, and treatment response

Abstract

Handan Tokmak,1 Nurhan Demir,2 Mehmet Onur Demirkol31Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, American Hospital, Nisantasi, Istanbul, 2Internal Medicine Department, Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul University, Istanbul, 3Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey Abstract: Cardiac angiosarcomas are a rare form of malignancy. The majority of cases arise from the right atrium as mural masses. These tumors have extremely aggressive behavior, with early clinical symptoms that vary depending on location, size, and extent of the tumor. Most of these patients have a very short survival time. Surgical therapy is considered the best choice of therapy approach in cardiac angiosarcoma patients with nonmetastatic disease, even though the disease is rarely cured. Advanced diagnostic techniques facilitate accurate, noninvasive assessments of cardiac sarcomas. We report a case of a 62-year-old man with cardiac angiosarcoma who had multiple distant metastases that were revealed by [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography–computed tomography imaging. Keywords: primary cardiac angiosarcoma, FDG PET/CT imaging, noninvasive assessment of cardiac sarcomas