Pleural Solitary Tumors - Long-Term Prognosis Related To Surgery And Clinicopathological Criteria

Pleural solitary fibrous tumors (SFTs) are indolent mesenchymal neoplasias, generally with good prognosis, for which complete surgical resection is the gold standard. However, local recurrences and distant metastases are reported at variable rates. Risk-assessing criteria and models determining recurrence and metastatic risk have been proposed, and can impact on patient follow-up strategies.

We conducted an observational study comprising a 12 years period to characterize a cohort of 20 surgically resected thoracic SFTs, and to retrospectively assess the prognostic value of England's histology criteria and Demicco's 4-tier model.

All tumors were pleural-based, 12 patients were women, and the mean age at diagnosis was 62.8 years. The median duration of follow-up was ten years, and at the end of the follow-up, all patients were alive, and no distant metastases were reported. Three cases (15%) had local recurrence at the median time of 89.3 months/7.4 years. The only case with an incomplete surgical resection relapsed. Collectively, tumors with worst prognostic features, specifically a positive margin or tumors with malignant histology or non-low-risk features, according to England's and Demicco's models, respectively, were associated with recurrence.

These results confirm the importance of complete surgical resection of SFTs, and show that risk stratification criteria and models can predict important surgical outcomes such as recurrence. Moreover, they support a risk-based follow-up schedule, as patients with higher relapse risk can benefit from close follow-up.