A 59-year-old woman with a significant smoking history presented with cough. Chest X-ray revealed a 4cm pulmonary mass in the left hemithorax. The examination was completed with a positron emission tomography, which confirmed uptake in this region and ruled out secondary involvement (cT2cN0) (Fig. 1); bronchoscopy, which was normal; and computed tomography (CT)-guided fine needle aspiration. Pathology results were indicative of non-small cell lung cancer. In view of these findings, surgery involving left pneumonectomy and hilar-mediastinal lymphadenectomy was planned. Definitive histology results showed a pleomorphic sarcomatoid carcinoma with areas of squamous differentiation.
Sarcoma of the lung is an uncommon neoplasm (0.5%–1%). It can be difficult to diagnose since it presents certain similarities to lung cancer, although it progresses more slowly.1 An additional problem is the difficulty in reaching a diagnosis from a biopsy specimen, since the heterogeneous nature of these tumors means that they are often incorrectly diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma, resulting in the application of an inappropriate treatment plan.2
Please cite this article as: Quintana Cortés L, Cruz Castellanos P, de Castro Carpeño J. Ilustramos la dificultad en el diagnóstico y tratamiento del sarcoma pulmonar. Arch Bronconeumol. 2016;52:331.
