Boldan Anca, Negru Alina Gabriela, Boldan Maria, Mazilu Laura, Tudor Anca, Popovici Dorel, Săftescu Sorin, Luca Constantin Tudor, Negru Șerban Mircea
Oncomed Oncology Outpatient Clinic, 300239 Timișoara, Romania.
Department of Cardiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timișoara, Romania.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2021 Jan 2;11(1):58. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11010058.
Pericarditis may signal the presence of cancer, even in the absence of other clinical or paraclinical signs. Corollary, the following question arises: Could the discovery of a newly developed pericarditis be used in patients with known neoplasia as a marker of cancer progression? In an attempt to find an answer to this question, this two-centre study included 341 consecutive patients with a confirmed diagnosis of cancer and evidence of pericardial effusion at echocardiography and/or CT/MRI scan. The patients' data were collected retrospectively if they further fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: available medical data from confirmation of pericarditis until evidence of cancer progression or until at least 12 months without progression. The average age of the patients was 62.16 years (22-86 years), and the study comprised 44.28% males and 55.71% females. All types of the most common neoplasms were represented. The results showed that 85.33% of patients had cancer progression temporally linked to pericarditis. Of these, 41.64% had cancer progression within 18 months after the diagnosis of pericarditis with a median time to progression of 5.03 months, ranging from 0 to 17 months; 43.69% had progression within a maximum of 2 months before the diagnosis of pericarditis. Only 14.66% had no cancer progression during the observation period. We concluded that pericarditis could be a sensitive marker of cancer evolution that could be widely used as a follow-up investigation for cancer patients as a marker of progression or recidive.
心包炎可能预示着癌症的存在，即使没有其他临床或辅助检查体征。由此引发了以下问题：对于已知患有肿瘤的患者，新出现的心包炎能否作为癌症进展的标志物？为了找到这个问题的答案，这项双中心研究纳入了341例连续确诊为癌症且超声心动图和/或CT/MRI扫描显示有心包积液的患者。如果患者进一步满足以下纳入标准，则对其数据进行回顾性收集：从确诊心包炎到出现癌症进展证据或至少12个月无进展期间的可用医疗数据。患者的平均年龄为62.16岁（22 - 86岁），研究包括44.28%的男性和55.71%的女性。涵盖了所有类型的最常见肿瘤。结果显示，85.33%的患者癌症进展与心包炎存在时间关联。其中，41.64%在诊断心包炎后18个月内出现癌症进展，进展的中位时间为5.03个月，范围为0至17个月；43.69%在诊断心包炎前最多2个月内出现进展。只有14.66%的患者在观察期内没有癌症进展。我们得出结论，心包炎可能是癌症进展的一个敏感标志物，可广泛用作癌症患者随访检查中进展或复发的标志物。
