Review of chest wall tumors: a diagnostic, therapeutic, and reconstructive challenge

Chest wall tumors are a heterogeneous group of lesions that provide an interesting diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for surgeons. They make up less than 5% of thoracic malignancies and vary widely in pathology as they arise from all anatomic structures of the chest wall. In general, treatment is wide local excision, the margins for malignant disease are necessarily wider, and adjuvant radiation is typically given for those with positive margins. Chemotherapy is rarely effective. Local control is the most important prognostic factor. Disease-free survival for malignant disease is limited by positive margins; therefore full oncologic resection with 4-cm margins should be attempted. For small lesions, the resection and reconstruction is usually straightforward. For more advanced disease or those lesions that require significant functional loss, preoperative planning using a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating thoracic surgery, plastic surgery, neurosurgery, radiation medicine, oncology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation, may be essential.