2001 Volume 41 Issue 6 Pages 687-691
Background: Pulmonary sarcoma arising in the pulmonary artery is extremely rare, and its diagnosis is seldom made preoperatively. However, an early diagnosis and surgical resection remain the mainstay of treatment.
Case: A surgically treated case of left pulmonary artery sarcoma is herein reported. A 60-year-old with left pulmonary artery sarcoma preoperatively diagnosed by a CT-guided needle biopsy was operated two months after his initial presentation in order to relieve his chief complaint of hemoptysis. The tumor was completely and successfully resected by a left pneumonectomy with a bilateral mediastinal nodal dissection. The histological diagnosis of the resected specimen was intimal sarcoma of the anterior superior segmental branch of the left pulmonary artery, and no lymph node metastasis was observed. Two years after the operation, the patient is alive without any evidence of local recurrence or distant metastasis.
Conclusion: The finding of this case suggested that an improved survival can be achieved for this disease with an early diagnosis and an appropriate surgical resection.
