Liposarcoma of the Pleural Cavity

Introduction

Pleural liposarcoma is a very rare tumor. Only fifteen cases have been previously described in the literature [1]. We report a case of pleural liposarcoma involving a 58-year-old man. He was admitted in July 2006 for chronic cough, chest pain and dyspnea. On routine chest radiography, we found homogeneous opacification of the left hemithorax and lung markings. In computed tomography (CT) scan, the mass tended to have a fatty density with mediastinal compression of the great vessels. A transparietal biopsy led to the pathological diagnosis of liposarcoma. Surgical excision was performed and radiation therapy was given six weeks afterwards. No recurrence was diagnosed during a follow-up period of ten months. To our knowledge, our case is only the sixteenth case reported in the English language literature. As such a small number of patients makes it difficult to identify prognostic factors that correlate with survival, we believe it to be important to describe some features of this disease.

References

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