Primary cardiac sarcomas: A retrospective study of the French Sarcoma Group

{Introduction: Primary cardiac sarcomas (PCS) are rare tumours of dismal prognosis. Methods: Data of 124 patients with PCS referred to institutions of the French Sarcoma Group (FSG) from 1977 and 2010 were reviewed. Results: Median age was 48.8 years. PCS were poorly-differentiated sarcomas (N = 45, 36.3%), angiosarcomas (N = 40, 32.3%), leiomyosarcomas (N = 16, 12.9%) and others (N = 23, 18.6%). At diagnosis, 100 patients (80.6%) were localised and 24 (19.4%) metastatic. Tumours were located in the right (N = 47, 38.8%), left atrial cavities (N = 45, 37.2%) or encompassed several locations in nine cases (7.4%). Surgery was performed in 81 cases (65.3%). Heart transplant was performed in five patients. Radiotherapy adjuvant (N = 18, 14.5%) or alone (N = 6, 4.8%) was performed in non-metastatic patients only (N = 24, 19.4%). With a median follow-up of 51.2 months, median overall survival (OS) was 17.2 months for the entire cohort, 38.8 months after complete resection versus 18.2 after incomplete resection and 11.2 months in non-resected patients. Radiotherapy was associated with improved progression-free survival (PFS) on multivariate analysis. Chemotherapy was significantly associated with better OS only in non-operated patients but not in operated patients. In non-metastatic patients, surgery (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.42, p < 0.001), male gender (HR = 0.56