Are patients with neoplasia at an increased risk for cardiac myxomas?

A case-control study was undertaken to assess whether a significant association exists between the presence of a neoplasm or malignancy and the presence of a cardiac myxoma. We identified 13 patients seen at our institution between 1935 and 1990 whose autopsies revealed a cardiac myxoma that was undetected during the patient's lifetime. For each patient four control subjects were selected among the autopsied patients who had never had a cardiac myxoma; these were matched for age at death, gender, and year of autopsy. The institutional medical records and autopsy reports revealed that 46% of the patients and 65% of their controls had a neoplasm diagnosed prior to or at autopsy. The estimated odds ratio was 0.34 (95% confidence interval, 0.05 to 1.84). There was insufficient evidence to conclude that an association exists between the presence of a neoplasm and the presence of a cardiac myxoma (P = .2722).