Primary Chest Wall Tumors

Abstract

Forty-five chest wall tumors have been diagnosed in patients at Vanderbilt University Hospital since 1940. Twenty-two of these patients had benign lesions, and all were treated by wide excision without recurrence or death. Of the 23 patients with malignant tumors, only 1 patient with a tumor of skeletal origin survived more than ten years without recurrence. The remaining 3 patients who were ten-year survivors had deep soft-tissue or neural sarcoma. No patient with primary malignant tumor of the chest wall survived more than five years without radical excision. Of the 6 patients surviving five years or more, 1 had reexcision at eight years and another at ten years. This suggests that early wide excision of all primary chest wall tumors and all recurrent chest wall tumors is the treatment of choice.