Surgical management of tracheal chondrosarcoma

Abstract

Background: Tracheal chondrosarcoma is an extremely rare, slow-growing, malignant tumour. This study aims to analyze the cases of tracheal chondrosarcoma published in the literature and our case report, in order to better define tracheal chondrosarcoma management.

Methods: A systematic review of the English literature was carried out for fully described tracheal chondrosarcoma cases. Additionally, we reported a new case of a 58-year-old man undergoing tracheal resection and reconstruction for tracheal chondrosarcoma.

Results: To date, 30 cases were published. This tumour predominantly involved male patients (93%; median age: 65 years), generally conditioning dyspnoea and cough. Most of the patients underwent tracheal resection with end-to-end anastomosis, without recurrence (median follow-up: 2 years). Tumours endoscopically treated recurred in half cases.

Conclusion: Tracheal resection is the treatment of choice for chondrosarcoma, with an excellent prognosis. Endoscopic treatment and/or radiotherapy should be indicated for patients unfit for surgery.

Keywords:

• Tracheal chondrosarcoma
• tracheal resection
• tracheal tumour
• chondrogenic tumour

Patient consent

Patient’s written consent for publication was obtained for our case report.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.