person with chest pain from heart cancer
Julie Hambleton
Julie Hambleton
January 8, 2024 ·  5 min read

Dad, 31, thought chest pain was a cold. It turned out to be heart cancer

Chest pain is one of those symptoms that can have a lot of reasons behind it. It can be something completely non-worrisome, however, it can also be something very serious. This 31-year-old dad of two thought that his chest pain was just because of a cold. When it suddenly got much worse, the doctors told him what he actually had was heart cancer. (1)

Young Dad Has Chest Pain That Turns Out To Be Heart Cancer

Ross Mangan of Kingston, Ontario, Canada was a regular, healthy young man. An accountant with two kids, he never smoked in his life, nor did he partake in other health-damaging behaviors. He plays plenty of sports and has no history of cancer or heart issues in his family. 

Last fall, he began experiencing chest pain that he attributed to a chest cold. His COVID-19 test came back negative, so he remained unconcerned. One night in November, however, his chest was hurting so much that he couldn’t lay down to sleep. When he stood up, he fainted. His wife called 9-1-1 who rushed him to the emergency room. There, the doctors found he had a large, cancerous tumor on his heart. This kind of cancer – cancer that begins in the heart – is very rare. His doctors told him that there wasn’t much they could do and that he had less than a year to live. With two small children at home, the couple was devastated. 

One Of The Most Rare Cancers

Heart cancer, also known as a malignant primary cardiac tumor, is extremely rare. This refers to when cancer starts in the heart as opposed to somewhere else and spreading there. Few surgeons and doctors will ever see a case of it in their entire careers. Because of this, there is not much knowledge on how to treat it. Most patients are told they have mere months to live, so they should start preparing themselves and their loved ones for their passing. (2)

Mangan’s doctors referred him to Dr. Robert Cusimano, a heart cancer specialist at the Toronto General Hospital. Dr. Cusimano is working on creating an international database on what is known about this cancer and leads conferences to teach other surgeons and doctors how to treat it. 

How Dr. Cusimano Treated Mangan’s Cancer

Dr. Cusimano says that most doctors’ instinct would be to try and operate immediately. The problem with that is that usually by the time heart cancer is detected, the tumor is very large and in multiple areas of the heart. Instead, he first treated Mangan with chemotherapy to shrink the tumor. He says that if the patient responds well to that and the cancer is smaller, then you can operate more safely and more successfully. 

Mangan’s cancer had begun in the heart, spread out to surround the organ, and then spread back in to take over further sections of the heart. Thankfully, it hadn’t spread anywhere else yet and after six months of chemo, it shrank away from the heart’s important structures. Dr. Cusimano performed a six-hour open-heart surgery on Mangan where he removed two blood vessels and a valve. He also had to rebuild a quarter of his heart. The surgery went well, however, and as of now, Mangan remains cancer-free.

“I don’t feel any anger or disappointment that it happened to me. Obviously, I wish that it didn’t happen,” Mangan said. “(But) everything that needed to go right for me when I had the worst odds did… I feel very lucky with the way that things turned out.”

His doctors currently don’t know what Mangan’s long-term outlook is because this cancer is so incredibly rare. For now, he continues to recover at home, where he is spending plenty of time with his kids and goes for hour-long walks each day.

Symptoms Of Heart Cancer

There is very little known about heart cancer. It is unclear what the potential risk factors are and who might be more prone to it. What doctors do know are some of its symptoms. These include (3):

  • Congestive heart failure
  • Shortness of breath
  • Chest pain
  • Blood clots
  • Changes in your heart rhythm
  • Coughing up blood
  • Tiredness and weakness
  • Weight loss

The tough part is that these symptoms are also the same as many other heart diseases such as a stroke and heart attack.

Causes Of Chest Pain

Just because you experience chest pain, of course, does not mean that you have heart cancer. There are many other reasons why you may be experiencing pain in this part of your body. Some of them are not overly worrisome, while others can be quite serious. These include (4):

  • Coronary artery disease
  • Myocardial infarction (aka heart attack)
  • Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle)
  • Pericarditis (inflammation or infection of the sac around the heart)
  • Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (a genetic disease that causes the heart muscle to grow abnormally thick)
  • Mitral valve prolapse (when a valve in the heart fails to close properly)
  • Coronary artery dissection (when a tear develops in the coronary artery)
  • Pleuritis (inflammation of the lining of the lungs and chest)
  • Pneumonia or lung abscess
  • Pulmonary embolism (a blood clot that travels through your body and gets stuck in the lungs)
  • Pneumothorax (when part of the lung collapses, usually from a chest injury)
  • Pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lung arteries that makes the heart work too hard)
  • Asthma
  • COPD (includes diseases that damage the lungs and make it difficult to breathe)
  • Gastroesophageal reflux disease (also known as GERD or acid reflux)
  • Esophageal contraction disorders
  • Esophageal hypersensitivity
  • Esophageal rupture or perforation (when a hole or tear develops in the esophagus)
  • Peptic ulcers (sores in the lining of the stomach or the first part of the small intestine)
  • Hiatal hernia (when the top of the stomach pushes into the lower chest after eating)
  • Pancreatitis
  • Gallbladder problems
  • Rib problems
  • Muscle pain
  • Shingles

When To See A Doctor About Chest Pain

As mentioned before not all of these are serious and require an emergency room visit. That being said, if you are concerned, it is never a bad idea to go to your doctor to request an examination. This applies in particular if you are coughing up yellow or green-colored mucus, difficulty swallowing, fever or chills, or severe pain that isn’t going away.  If you experience any of the following along with chest pain, however, you should call 9-1-1 immediately:

  • A sudden feeling of pressure, squeezing, tightness, or crushing under your breastbone
  • Chest pain that spreads to your jaw, left arm, or back
  • Sudden, sharp chest pain with shortness of breath, especially after a long period of inactivity
  • Nausea, dizziness, rapid heart rate or rapid breathing, confusion, ashen color, or excessive sweating
  • Very low blood pressure or very low heart rate

As already mentioned, if you are concerned, visit your doctor and request examinations. As always, don’t back away until you feel you’ve had all your questions answered and you feel confident with their responses.

Sources

  1. Dad, 31, thought chest pain was a cold. It turned out to be heart cancer.” Today. A. Pawlowski. June 29, 2021.
  2. Heart cancer: Is there such a thing?Mayo Clinic. Karthik Giridhar, M.D.
  3. What Is Heart Cancer?WebMD.
  4. What’s Causing My Chest Pain?WebMD