Cutaneous and subcutaneous masses of the chest wall: a fine-needle aspiration study

Primary cutaneous and subcutaneous neoplasms of the chest wall are uncommon. However, metastatic tumors involving this region may be seen in local recurrence, widespread metastases, or as the first manifestation of an occult malignant neoplasm. We report a series of 81 fine-needle aspirations (FNA) of cutaneous and subcutaneous masses involving the chest wall of 45 males and 36 females (age range 32-89 yr, mean 63 yr). Sixty-nine patients (85%) have a previous history of malignancy. The most common sites of the primary malignancy are breast (n = 32, 46%), lung (n = 19, 26%), head and neck (n = 6, 9%). Of these 69 aspirates, 65 (94%) are malignant and consistent with patients' primaries; two (3%) are benign aspirates, and two (3%) are unsatisfactory for cytologic evaluation. The remaining 12 (15%) aspirates from patients with no previous history of malignancy reveal 10 (84%) occult malignancies, and two (16%) benign entities. The malignant cases consist of nine (90%) metastatic epithelial neoplasms of unknown primary origin, and one (10%) primary soft-tissue sarcoma. In summary, this study demonstrates that the majority of cutaneous and subcutaneous masses of the chest wall subjected to FNA are neoplastic. FNA is an effective technique for primary assessment of these lesions.