Cardiac Myxoma and Neural Crests: a tense relationship

Abstract In cardiac myxomas the malignant transformation process, selecting incidental gene mutations and leading to loss of proliferation control, has not a so drastic effects being characterized by a slow growth of tumor mass, but frequently the particular location of lesion engrosses the high risk for health. For accurate cancer cell profiling it is important to establish the embryologic origin of malignant cells and their initial commitments, above all in the sight of therapeutic strategies and solutions. Here we advanced, for cardiac myxoma, the hypothesis of an origin from cardiac neural crests cells and we attempt to support it by an integrated discussion of current knowledge about embryological characteristics of neural crests cells and most recent studies focusing cardiac myxomas. We discuss the relationship between the basic plasticity of cardiac neural crests cells and some typical mutations arising in neoplastic lesions as well as the expression of typical cell markers of neural crests derivatives. Dysfunctions in proliferative and migratory programs, focused in other studies, are evaluated in the context of the topological and histopathological characteristics of cardiac myxomas.