Clinical spectrum of pulmonary inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor

We retrospectively describe clinicopathological characteristics of five patients with surgically resected pulmonary inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT), and discuss in the light of present-day concepts regarding this disease entity. During the past 15 years, five patients with an age ranging from 21 to 74 years underwent surgery for IMT of the lung, and the resected lesions were studied histologically and immunohistochemically. Three asymptomatic patients referred as X-ray suspicious lung cancer, one patient complained of recurrent hemoptysis, and one presented with fever and dyspnea. The three patients were treated by lobectomy (n=3) including chest wall resection, one segmentectomy and one wedge resection, two of whom were diagnosed as pulmonary sarcoma by frozen section at surgery. The tumor size ranged from 1.5 to 5.5 cm in diameter and histologically characterized by myofibroblasts that are mixed with chronic inflammatory cells, including plasma cells, lymphocytes, and histiocytes. There was no recurrence in these patients, and all of them are in good health. Complete surgical resection can be chosen for both diagnostic and therapeutic for IMTs, which remains the best treatment.