Abstract
Introduction
Primary liposarcoma of the lung is extremely rare with only 11 cases reported worldwide. However, metastatic pulmonary liposarcoma was reported around 15% out of all metastatic pulmonary soft tissue sarcoma.
Case report:
A case of 53 year-old man who presented with mass at left scapular region was referred to our unit in June 2006. He had history of thigh liposarcoma 14 years back which was operated and received a course of radiotherapy. However, he denied of having chest pain, shortness of breath or any other respiratory symptom. Biopsy of the mass came back as liposarcoma (round cell type). CT scan showed presence of left pleural base mass. He underwent left posterolateral thoracotomy and excision of infrascapular as well as intrathoracic mass 3 months later. Post operatively was complicated by hypovolemic shock and anemia. He was put under intensive care monitoring and discharged well at day 52 post-operatively. He was supposed to come for oncology appointment in December 2006 for radiotherapy.
Discussion & Conclusions:
Pulmonary liposarcoma can be devided into 4 main subtypes; myxoid, round cell, well differentiated and pleomorphic, which have different post operative survival rate. Five years survival rate of metastatic liposarcoma varies from as high as 77% in myxoid type as low as 18 % in round cell type. Even though metastatic pulmonary liposarcoma has the worst prognosis compared to other soft tissue sarcomas, some studies and centres believe that complete resection will give better prognostic value in term of survival rate and recurrences.
