Cancer of the heart? Why is that one of the few organs of the human body?

Question

which never seems to be affected by cancer? Or am I wrong on that score?

Answer 1

you are wrong
unfortunately i know this all to well
a lady i know just passed away through this
a secondary tumour from her cervix
it attacked the muscle surrounding her heart and then spread to the heart itself
its called angiosarcoma

Answer 2

The heart is the last organ to be affected by cancer because cancer cells are anaerobic (don't like oxygen) so because the heart is pumping oxygenated blood the body needs to be in pretty bad shape for the heart to get cancer.

Answer 3

Ooh, you get some 'interesting' answers on this site.

The heart is a muscle and it is an organ.

The heart is rarely affected by cancer because heart cells are 'post-mitotic' cells. That means, the heart cells do not replicate/divide to create new cells. That is why a heart attack is so dangerous - the damaged heart is unable to repair itself because heart cells do not replicate.

Cancer almost always occurs in replicating cells. In fact, most cancers occur in the cells that replicate the most - the epithelial cells that line the gut, prostate, breast, lungs, uterus, skin, etc.

Cancers are tumors which are collections of hundreds of millions of abnormal cells that often start with a single mutation in one cell. That one 'initiating' cell then divides and passes on the mutation to its daughter cells. As the daughter cells also divide they pass on the original mutation. Gradually, the growing generations of cells develop more and more mutations, which may eventually transform into a deadly cancer.

So, cells must be dividing/replicating for many, many 'generations' before they can accumulate enough genetic damage to become cancerous. Heart cells do not replicate and therefore, only very rarely can accumulate enough genetic damage to become a cancer cell.

Hope this is helpful. Best wishes.

Answer 4

Heart cancer is extremely rare yet there such thing as heart cancer. Cancerous (malignant) tumors of the heart are most often sarcomas. Occasionally, cancer can spread to the heart, such as from lymphomas that originate in the structures of the chest near the heart. Other cancers that can spread to the heart include melanomas and sarcomas.

Cancer can affect the heart in other ways, such as causing damage to the heart valves (marantic endocarditis) or stiffening of the heart muscle (cardiac fibrosis).

Answer 5

cancer spreads to other organs through blood, heart cancer exists

Answer 6

Strictly speaking it's not an organ, it's a muscle.
Possibly it is less subject to cancer because it it doesn't process anything, and doesn't have any intimate, direct contact with carcinogens. It just pumps.

Answer 7

You are right ...its because its a muscle, which is a tissue rarely affected by cancer.

Answer 8

you can get tumours of the heart

Answer 9

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/mole00/mole00484.htm