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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2008;136:1093-1095
© 2008 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Brief Communication

Recurrent sarcoma originating from the pulmonary artery 6 years after extensive thoracic resection

^a Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplant, and Vascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
^b Department of Pathology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
^c Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Received for publication November 21, 2007; accepted for publication February 5, 2008.

^_* Address for reprints: Stefan Fischer, MD, MSc, Director, Hannover Thoracic Surgery and Lung Support Program Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplant, and Vascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1, 30625 Hannover, Germany. (Email: fischer.stefan@mh-hannover.de).

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Sarcoma originating from the pulmonary artery (PA) is a rare tumor. In 1923, Mandelstamm¹ was the first to describe this disease in an autopsy. Since then, fewer than 200 cases overall have been reported. Because of its rarity and insidious growth characteristics, PA sarcoma is often mistaken for pulmonary embolism, leading to inappropriate therapy such as prolonged anticoagulation or thrombolysis.²

Prognosis is usually poor with a median survival of approximately 12 months with surgical resection of the tumor and 1.5 months without surgical resection of the tumor. Several reports have shown that chemotherapy and radiotherapy may lead to prolonged survival. Only a few cases of complete remission after radical surgical resection have been reported. The longest survival times reported are 3.5 years and 5.5 years.^3,4

We report the case of a 48-year-old female patient with recurrent sarcoma of the main PA mimicking fulminant PA embolism 6 years after extensive resection of the primary tumor.

Clinical Summary

A previously healthy 42-year-old patient developed progressive respiratory distress over a period of several weeks as . . . [Full Text of this Article]