As our understanding of the pathogenesis of cancers grows and new treatment modalities become available, so too does the number of key research questions in oncology that need answering. Frontiers in Oncology is working with members of our Editorial Board to tackle some of these key questions through Editor’s Challenges, each of which pose a key question in the oncology field.
We are delighted to present this Editor’s Challenge, led by Dr. Mohamed Rahouma, and in collaboration with Dr. Magdy and Dr. Baudo, asking how we can optimize the management and treatment of cardiac tumors and cardiac complications of cancer?
Optimizing the Management and Treatment of Cardiac Tumors and Cardiac Complications of CancerCardiac tumors (CTs) are rare and are categorized as benign or malignant CTs. Malignant CTs are further divided into primary cardiac tumors (PCTs) and secondary cardiac tumors (SCTs). In contrast to previous investigations reporting a higher prevalence of SCTs than PCTs, more recent studies have shown a change in the trend of cardiac tumors, with both PCTs and SCTs having an almost equal prevalence.
While the most common form of CTs is myxoma, the most common forms of malignant PCTs are sarcomas (especially angiosarcomas), followed by lymphomas and mesotheliomas, and survival rates for patients with these tumors are poor. SCTs arising from metastasis are common in patients with advanced breast, lung and esophageal cancers and melanomas. Surgical resection is one of the key treatment modalities for CTs, in addition to systemic therapy and radiotherapy; however, cardiac transplantation has recently emerged as an additional option.
Although cardiac tumors are rare, they are often associated with significant complications including cardiac outflow obstruction and fatal arrhythmias. Therefore, there is a need to optimize the management of patients with CTs in order to improve survival outcomes.
This Editor’s Challenge Research Topic invites manuscripts exploring the management and treatment of PCTs and SCTs, and their associated complications. Potential themes include:
- Advances in the diagnosis of cardiac tumors
- Surgical approaches to the treatment of cardiac tumors including cardiac transplantation
- Novel treatment approaches for cardiac tumors
- Studies exploring cardiac complications of cancer
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Other collections in our Editor's Challenge series:
Editor's Challenge: Claudio Cerchione - Is it Time for a Targeted Therapy in Multiple Myeloma? Editor's Challenge: Abhishek Mahajan - How Can Precision Oncology be Advanced with Validated Imaging-Based Nomograms? Editor's Challenge: Dr. Luciano Mutti - What Is the True Impact of ICIs on Survival in the Treatment of Thoracic Malignancies? Editor's Challenge: Walter Storkus - Sexual Dimorphism and the Host Immune Response to Renal Cell Carcinoma Editor's Challenge: Dr. Qingxin Mu - How can Nanomedicine Approaches Advance Multi-targeting Strategy in Combination Cancer Therapy?