Dawaa Reference

Clinical reference

Malignant cardiovascular neoplasm

Treatment options, dosing, cautions and Egyptian brands from the shipped Dawaa Reference card.

Evidence status

Checked against the sources named below

Sources3 sources

Cardiac Tumors - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537144/ · ICPC-3 (WONCA International Classification of Primary Care, 3rd edition) class KD25.01 - condition scope only, no dose · No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care

Verified against1 document
  • No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care

Verified date2026-08

Presentation reference

Is it this?

Reference only, to read alongside your own examination.

Symptoms — what the patient reports (4)

  • Symptoms are vague and creeping, which holds up diagnosis and surgery
  • Presentations include valve failure, pericardial effusion with tamponade, blocked flow inside the heart, arrhythmia and heart failure [arrhythmia]
  • A growing share cause nothing at all and are found by chance
  • How it presents follows tumour size, where it sits, how fast it grows and how far it invades

Tests (12)

  • Unless the mass is taken out, most cannot be pinned down with certainty
  • Bedside echocardiogram is the first test, with sensitivity and specificity reaching 90%
  • A transoesophageal study adds character and site, and finds small masses the transthoracic view leaves unclear
  • Contrast echo separates a tumour from a clot in the heart
  • Cardiac MRI gauges size, site, mobility and the effect on neighbouring structures
  • Telling benign from malignant, cardiac MRI reached up to 79% accuracy in small groups of patients
  • Late gadolinium picks up extracellular matrix; no uptake points instead to a clot
  • Fat suppression sequences pick out fatty tumours such as lipoma and liposarcoma
  • CT reads the mass and its neighbours, judging nature from x-ray attenuation, and shows calcium
  • Catheter study shows invasion of the epicardial vessels and, on ventriculography, spread into the ventricle
  • Right-sided lesions are the ones sampled; sampling a left-sided one risks perforation and clot showering off
  • Image guidance raises biopsy yield; fluid drawn from the pericardium can also be sent for cytology

If not this — what else fits (4)

  • A mass in the heart may instead be a clot or a vegetation
  • With an implanted device or prosthesis plus infection, vegetation moves up the list
  • In a cancer patient, heart failure may be chemotherapy toxicity and needs settling before spread is assumed
  • Infection itself can throw up masses or fluid around the heart, so send microbiology

SourceStatPearls "Cardiac Tumors" - disease-level clinical article

Presentation findings are traced to the source above.

1

NO DRUG THERAPY IN PRIMARY CARE (REFERRAL & ADVICE)

1st line
Adult dose and duration

Primary cardiac or vascular malignancy (for example angiosarcoma) is very rare and requires urgent oncology and cardiothoracic referral; nothing is prescribed in primary care. - Refer, with advice

Paediatric dose

Children follow the same pathway: recognise and refer. No primary-care medicine is implied.

Dose source

No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care

Why

Primary cardiac or vascular malignancy (for example angiosarcoma) is very rare and requires urgent oncology and cardiothoracic referral; nothing is prescribed in primary care.

Cautions
  • Rapidly progressive heart failure, pericardial effusion, or unexplained systemic symptoms with a cardiac mass need urgent same-service referral.
  • Rare in Egyptian primary care.
  • No medicine is prescribed for this in primary care - this entry is for recognition and referral. Anything given is decided by the service it is referred to.

Prices are indicative (dataset snapshot 2026-06); verify with the pharmacy.