[Surgical treatment of chest wall tumors]

The term chest wall tumor summarizes a heterogeneous group of malignant and benign tumors, whereby primary and secondary chest wall tumors are differentiated. The incidence of secondary chest wall tumors is higher than that of primary tumors. Primary chest wall tumors can arise from any anatomic structure of the chest wall. Surgical resection is usually the treatment of choice. Resection status and tumor differentiation are relevant prognostic factors. Treatment of secondary chest wall tumors is performed depending on the patient's symptoms and prognosis of the underlying disease. Lung carcinomas infiltrating the chest wall can be resected primarily or secondarily as part of multimodal therapeutic strategies. Anatomic lung resections combined with chest wall resection have a higher mortality than standard resections. Chest wall reconstruction after resection has the goal of reducing paradoxical respiratory motion, although not every chest wall defect requires reconstruction.