Primitive tracheal tumors are extremely infrequent lesions which correspond to 2% of all upper airway neoplastic pathologies and to 0.01% of all malignant lung diseases. The objective is to evaluate the survival of these patients according to their histological type, length of resection and characteristics of the tracheal margins. retrospective study of a descriptive type analyzed over ten year-periods. An examination was conducted of all patients diagnosed and treated for a primitive tracheal tumor at “Maria Ferrer" Respiratory Rehabilitation Hospital from January 1971 to May 2006. Out of 48 patients, ranging from 9 to 79 years of age, 29 were female and 19 were male. The most frequent tumor was adenocystic carcinoma, followed in frequency by epidermoid carcinoma. The duration of symptoms until diagnosis was 10 months and 33% of these patients were wrongly treated for asthma. Deobstruction, through rigid bronchoscopy, was successful as a bridge towards surgery, and it was reserved for use as an exclusive treatment for benign tumors or with a palliative criterion in non-resectable tumors. The lowest one-third was the most affected tracheal segment. The best results in this group of patients are related to resections which were less than 6 cm long and had negative margins.