A Case Report of Primary Cardiac Lymphoma: Diagnosis by Transvenous Biopsy

Primary cardiac lymphomas diagnosed antemortem are extremely rare. We present a case of primary cardiac lymphma diagnosed antemortem by transvenous biopsy under transesophageal echocardiographic guidance. The patient who was a 62 years old male presented with facial edema, dyspnea on exertion and syncope. The chest X-ray film showed double contour at right cardiac border and the ECG showed marked sinus bradycardia. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), chest computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed intracardiac tumor of right atrium, invasing interatrial septum and inlets of superior and inferior vena cava and lateral wall of right atrium. Abdominopelvic CT and bone scan failed to show any extracardiac location. Transvenous biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of malignant lymphoma (diffuse large cell, B cell type). After chemotherapy was begun, the tumor makedly shrunk and symptoms resolved. Primary cardiac lymphoma is extremely rare and almost uniformly fatal, but this case showed that early diagnosis and intensive che-motherapy might contribute to a better prognosis for patients with malignant lymphoma of the heart.

Efficacy of Gemcitabine Chemotherpy in Advanced Non-small cell Lung Cancer ( NSCLC ): A Phase 2 Study / 대한암학회지

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of gemcitabine, a pyrimidine antimetabolite against advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty patients with unresectable stage IIIb to IV, pathologacally documented NSCLC were evaluated. Patients received gemcitabine 1000 mg/m, as a 30 to 60-min, intravenous infusion on days 1, 8 and 15, which was repeated every 28 days. Responses were assessed every two courses. Twenty-five to fifty percent dose reduction was permitted, ptovided that overall toxicity was severe according to World Health Organization (WHO) toxicity criteria. RESULTS: Of all 40 patients (32 men, 8 women; age range 37 to 73 years; median 63 years), 3S patients were assessable for response. 15 patients had stage IIIb disease and 25 had stage IV. Nineteen patients were histologically classified as adenocarcinoma (47.5%), 17 as squamous cell carcinoma (42.5%), 1 as large cell carcinoma (2.5%), 1 as mixed carcinoma (2.5%) and 2 as undifferentiated carcinoma (5.0%). The overall response rate was 20%. None of the patients showed complete response while 7 showed partial response (20%), 5 had stable diseases (23%) and 23 had progressive diseases (57%). During a total of 119 courses, hematologic toxicity was negligible. Granulo- cytopenia worse than WHO grade 3 occured in 11.8%, anemia in O.S% and thrombocytopenia in 0.8%, respectively. Non-hematologic toxicity was minor and easily controlled. There was no case of febrile neutropenia or treatment-related death. CONCLUSION: The single agent efficacy of gemcitabine is comparable to other agents commonly used to treat NSCLC. Gemcitabine has unusually mild side effect profile for such an active agent. This significant activity in conjunction with a very favorable toxicity profile supports further investigation in combination with other agents in patients with inoperable NSCLC.