Mediastinal lymph node metastasis as a single expression of disease relapse in Ewing's sarcoma: multidisciplinary approach of two consecutive cases

Abstract

Ewing's sarcoma of the bone is a rare, highly aggressive tumor that typically affects children and young adults. Progress in the treatment of Ewing's sarcoma has improved survival from about 10%, before the introduction of chemotherapy, to about 75% today for patients with localized tumors. On the contrary, metastatic disease still has a poor prognosis, and a multidisciplinary approach is essential to improve the outcome. Molecular techniques and new imaging modalities are affecting the diagnosis and classification of patients with Ewing's sarcoma. The most frequent sites of metastases in Ewing's sarcoma include lungs, bones and bone marrow. Lymph nodes are a rare site of metastatic spread, particularly in the mediastinum. In this report, we present two consecutive cases of patients with Ewing's Sarcoma, diagnosed, and treated at our institute. We focused particularly on the rarity of the atypical presentation of the disease and on the synergistic strategy to adopt as a model of networking in treating patients with rare diseases.