Heart cancer. Why can he not be afraid?

Cancers are common. If people of the Middle Ages were well versed in oncology, and understood what cancer is and how dangerous it is, they would call “The Beach of God” not Attila (though he lived before) and not the plague, but this disease. And indeed, cancer is very common, cancer is almost everything - brain, liver, chest, bones, blood, skin, heart. Wait ... heart cancer? Is that possible?

If you are not a doctor or specialist with a specialty related to medicine, then you have hardly heard of heart cancer. But this does not mean that this problem does not exist. She is, but is very rare. According to Mayo Clinic statistics (Mayo Clinic), they receive one patient about once a year with this disease. And this clinic is not at all small - it is one of the largest private medical centers in the world. So what is heart cancer, and is it also worth being afraid of it?

No, you can not be afraid. The overwhelming majority of cases of cancer of the heart muscle is the so-called secondary cancer. Secondary tumors of the heart develop due to metastases of cancer of other organs (cancers of the kidneys, stomach, breast, thyroid, lung). In this case, the cancer cells strike first some other organ (for example, the lungs) and already in a severe stage of the disease, the cancer of the heart may also begin to develop.
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The only type of primary malignant heart tumor is sarcoma. This group includes:

• angiosarcoma - develops from the cells of the blood and lymph vessels
• fibrosarcoma - originates from soft tissue cells
• liposarcoma - develops from mesenchyme cells
• rhabdomyosarcoma - originates from striated muscle cells

Doctors and scientists identify the following risk factors for the development of heart tumors:

• metastases of cancer of other organs (is the cause of malignant heart tumors in most cases)
• infectious diseases
• smoking and excessive drinking
• toxic effects on the body
• overweight

Symptoms are very similar to other diseases:

• fever
• general weakness of the body
• chest pain
• heart rhythm disorders
• signs of chronic heart failure
• heart block
• skin eruption
• shortness of breath
• fever
• signs of tachycardia

But back to the essence of the conversation. Why does the heart so rarely infect cancer cells? The point is in the very structure of the heart muscle, and in a very fast metabolism. The heart is made up of myocytes of the heart muscle, and these are special cells. Myocytes are long, elongated cells that develop from progenitor cells - myoblasts. There are several types of myocytes: myocytes of the heart muscle (cardiomyocytes), skeletal and smooth muscles. Each of these types has special properties. For example, cardiomyocytes, among other things, generate electrical impulses that set the heart rate.

The myocytes of the cardiac muscle form this organ as a whole and leave the normal for cells rather early life cells, stopping to divide. After that, the growth of the heart is due only to an increase in the size of the cells, and not their division. This is the difference between myocytes and other cells, for example, epithelium cells, which begin to divide if necessary.

Cancer, in fact, is unregulated cell proliferation (growth of the body tissue through cell multiplication by division). A common cause of cancer is genetic mutations that accumulate in cells over time and sometimes lead to the onset of an uncontrolled cell division process. In turn, this leads to the formation of a tumor, which increases in size, allows metastasis to other tissues and other organs. In the last stage, cancer cells spread throughout the body, causing chaotic cell division in many organs and tissues.

But the myocytes of the heart muscle, as we already know, stop dividing very early. They also lose their ability to synthesize DNA, which is why these cells do not reproduce their own kind. And since this process is impossible, cancer cells are not too dangerous for the heart.

In the United States, cancer is the second leading cause of human death. But among the hundreds of thousands of deaths among patients of oncological clinics, heart cancer is found only in a small number - tens of patients (not hundreds and not thousands).

But the inability of the heart cells to share is, on the one hand, a real gift for man. On the other - a curse. For the same reason, the inability of myocytes of the heart muscle to participate in the normal cell cycle, cardiovascular diseases kill more people than cancer. If a part of the heart is blocked in the heart, then oxygen and nutrients do not flow to it, a certain part of the tissue simply dies. And instead of recovering muscle by dividing cells, it is scarring. The heart has to work harder to ensure the blood supply in the normal mode, but with a smaller "working area" of the surface. As a result, the problem again - a new attack happens, a new scar. And so on, until the death of man.

Therefore, the mechanism that prevents uncontrolled cell division of the heart muscle is also the cause of many heart diseases. This is both good and bad. And nothing can be done - we are such people.