Mesenchymatous Tumors of The Lung and Pleura

Abstract

Within the past ten years a greater incidence in primary carcinoma of the lung has been observed (1). Mesenchymatous tumors, both benign and malignant, however, continue to be considered very rare primary newgrowths of the lung. Adler (2) states that primary sarcoma of the lung is a great rarity, and he did not observe a single case, but he believed the extreme rarity of such growths might be exaggerated. He collected 94 sarcomas from the literature and in reviewing these in his monograph observed that many were not well differentiated from carcinoma and only a few could be considered as true primary sarcomas. Hickey and Simpson (3) reported two chondromas of the lung and reviewed 40 cases. Other authors (4) emphasize the great infrequency of the primary tumors of the lung and pleura. Kaufmann (5) describes the occurrence of small chondromas but considers malignant tumors such as spindle-cell, or small or mixed cell sarcoma, as very rare primary growths. He also points out, as has been our experience, tha...