Intravascular Synovial Sarcoma of the Pulmonary Artery with Massive Pleural Effusion: Report of a Case with a Favorable Response to Ifosfamide Chemotherapy and Palliative Radiation Therapy

Abstract

Synovial sarcoma (SS) commonly arises in the para-articular soft tissue; however, very few cases of intravascular SS have so far been reported. We herein describe a case of pulmonary artery SS with massive pleural effusion. A biopsy of the pleural lesions showed uniform short spindle cell proliferation, while the SYT-SSX fusion gene, which is preceded by chromosomal translocation t(X;18)(p11;q11), was detected using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Treatment with ifosfamide chemotherapy and palliative radiation therapy was effective in reducing the growth of the tumor in the pulmonary artery and pleural lesions, indicating that this regimen may be useful for the treatment of unresectable SS in the pulmonary artery.