Ever Hear of Heart Cancer? Me Neither – Here’s Why

Scrolling through Youtube today I stumbled across this video that was trending from SciShow called "Why is Heart Cancer So Rare?"

This stopped me in my tracks. I never thought about it. Ever other vital organ or part in the body gets a cancer that I've heard of: bone cancer, brain cancer, blood cancer, pancreatic cancer. But until today I had never heard of "heart cancer."

It does happen, as the dude in the video points out, less than once per year per hospital. But why not? For the same reason you've never heard of bicep cancer, quadriceps cancer, calf cancer or pec cancer. The heart is a muscle and muscles don't get cancer because muscle cells don't divide and duplicate. They expand and grow with you.

I learned something today!