Juraj Dúbrava, Jana Poláková Mištinová
Heart tumours are rare findings in clinical practice. Cardiac surgery for heart tumours represents 0.3 to 0.9 % of all open
heart operations. The autoptic prevalence of primary tumours reported in the literature is 0.01-0.3 %. Of these, 12-25 %
are malignant and 67-88 % are benign. Much more common, however, are secondary (metastatic) tumours. Metastatic
malignant tumours are 20-40 times more likely than primary malignant tumours. Malignancies are more common in
the right than in the left heart. Over 50 % of the right heart tumours are malignant. Metastatic involvement of the heart
occurs only at extensive dissemination of the underlying tumour. Isolated metastases to the heart without dissemination
to other organs are exceptional. The review article is discussing the clinical presentation, diagnostics, differential
diagnostics, treatment, prognosis and characteristics of individual tumours of the heart.