Results of the operative treatment of primary pulmonary sarcomas

OBJECTIVE: To study and evaluate clinic, diagnostics and operative treatment of patients with primary pulmonary sarcomas (PPS). MATERIAL AND METHODS: During 24 years period, a total of 49 patients underwent surgery for PPS. There were 29 male and 20 female with a mean age of 52.6 years. Main presenting complaints were shortness of breath, cough, chest pain, weight loss and haemoptysis. Correct preoperative diagnosis was obtained in 12 (24.48%) of the patients by bronchoscopy or percutaneous core biopsy. Carcinoma was diagnosed in 14 (28.6%) of them. Almost half of the cases were operated on without histological confirmation for suspected malignancy. The histological diagnoses were fibrosarcoma (16), fibroleiomyosarcoma (10), leiomyosarcoma (6), rhabdomyosarcoma (7), hemangiopericytoma (3), epitheloid hemangioendothelioma (3), undifferentiated sarcoma (2), malignant schwannoma (1) and liposarcoma (2). Only 2 of the tumors were scored in grade 1. The rest were classified in higher grades of malignancy. The following operations were carried out: lobectomy--30 (59.2%), including 2 sleeve lobectomies; pneumonectomy--10 (20.4%), polysegmental resections--3 (6.2%) and atypical resection--1 (2%). The resections were extended to the thoracic wall, diaphragm or pericardium in 4 patients. Endoscopic laser resection was applied in 1 (2%) case. Exploratory thoracotomy was performed on 3 (6.1%) patients. There were 2 (4.1%) stage I A; 26 (53.1%) stage I B; 11 (22.4) stage II B; 5 stage III A; 4 stage III B and 1 stage IV. RESULTS: No postoperative death occurred. Postoperative empyema was observed in 2 cases (4.1%) and 1 patient (2%) was reoperated on for local recurrence 18 months after surgery. Adjuvant therapy was administered to 20 of the patients. Follow-up (range, 6 to 160 months) was available for 41 patients. The actuarial 5-year postoperative survival was 51.8% with mean survival of 40.8 months. CONCLUSION: The correct preoperative diagnosis of PPS still presents a challenge. There are no specific clinical, imaging and other signs for this tumor evaluation. Surgery with systematic lymphnode dissection is a treatment of choice with an acceptable 5-year survival rate. Only the complete resection and the low stages of the tumor significantly influence survival.