Chest wall tumors: optimizing survival through prognostic factors and reconstruction

Primary malignant chest wall tumors, originating from the bones, are infrequent neoplasms. Given its heterogeneity, further research is needed to understand the implications of recurrence and related factors in patients undergoing chest wall resection.

We analyzed the association between the clinicopathological characteristics of these patients and their overall-survival (OS) and disease-free-survival (DFS).

In this study, we conducted a retrospective analysis on patients who underwent chest wall resection for primary malignant bony chest wall tumors between 2000-2023.

Fifty-one patients were included. The presence of Ewing tumor, prior adjuvant therapy, postoperative complications, and reduced surgical margin were significantly associated with DFS and OS in both survival and univariate analyses. The optimal surgical margin threshold was identified as greater than 3 cm. Multivariate analysis revealed that only histopathological diagnosis of Ewing tumor and an insufficient margin remained significant for worse DFS and OS (p = 0.041 and 0.024, respectively). The 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) rates were 53.6% and 50.8%, respectively.

Ensuring effective surgery of chest wall tumors necessitates a surgical margin greater than 3 cm. Furthermore, the histopathologic classification of Ewing carcinoma emerges as another determinant impacting DFS and OS.