Abstract
For patients with an unresectable tumor or a huge tumor on the body surface with metastasis, palliative surgery can be performed to address issues of odor, bleeding, pain, or infection associated with tumor involvement to improve quality of life ( QOL ).
We report herein a rare case of a 38-year-old woman who presented with a large soft-tissue tumor in the left thigh measuring 22 × 20 × 15 cm. Tumor growth had first been noticed 6 years earlier, with a progressive increase in size. Histopathological examination showed myxoid / round cell liposarcoma. Palliative free flap transfer was selected due to the possibility of tumor disintegration and massive bleeding, although disease stage had already progressed. We removed the sarcoma with inadequately wide margins, and performed reconstruction with a free latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap. The patient died on postoperative day 102, but massive bleeding from the sarcoma and dyspnea from rapid growth of pulmonary metastasis could be prevented. We believe that palliative free flap transfer in this patient improved QOL and quality of death.
