Cardiac angiosarcoma: what is the rare tumor that affected Sofia Sacchitelli?
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She’s dead Sofia Sacchitelli, the 23-year-old from Genoa, suffering from a rare cardiac angiosarcoma. The young woman, a fifth-year medical student, had decided to found the association ‘Sofia in the heart’ after being diagnosed with the disease. The goal was to carry out a scientific research project to improve the quality of care and expand the therapeutic offer for patients suffering from this disease.
On the occasion of March 8, International Women’s Day, her sister Ilaria had taken part in the non-stop marathon organized by the Liguria Region, recounting her sister’s commitment, offering her testimony as a woman and talking about the work that her sister carried out for the development of the company.
Cardiac angiosarcoma
But what is the cardiac angiosarcoma that Sofia Sacchitelli suffered from? Angiosarcoma can develop anywhere on the body but most commonly affects the skin, while rarer forms can involve the heart, breasts, soft tissues, liver, spleen and bones.
What struck the young woman, cardiac angiosarcoma, involved the heart. It is a very aggressive tumor that mainly affects patients under the age of 65 and has an incidence of two-three cases per million inhabitants. It generally develops from the right atrium and then quickly involves the pericardium and develops metastases, especially pulmonary ones.
Symptoms
It is a very rare type of tumour, especially in terms of location, and of completely unpredictable onset. Cardiac angiosarcoma can often remain asymptomatic until it grows large or involves nearby structures. If present, symptoms are usually nonspecific and may include dyspnea, weight loss, fatigue, and pain; more specific cardiological symptoms, which generally appear later, may be due to arrhythmias, valvular stenosis, heart failure, pulmonary embolisms, pericardial effusion and lesions of the walls of the heart.
Cardiac angiosarcoma has very often Poor prognosis and treatments for this type of tumor are not standardized and can include various combinations of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In many cases the therapies are carried out exclusively for palliative purposes.
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