Primary Sarcoma of the Lung

Our plain-English summary of Primary Sarcoma of the Lung, by S. Ochsner, A. Ochsner (1957).

The study

• Authors: S. Ochsner, A. Ochsner
• Published: Ochsner Clinic Reports, Volume 3 No2. July 1957
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This article described seven patients with primary sarcoma of the lung seen at the Ochsner Clinic between March 1942 and March 1957. Sarcoma here means a cancer of connective (mesenchymal) tissue rather than of the airway lining. In the same period, bronchogenic carcinoma was diagnosed in 890 patients at the clinic. The patients were Negro and white men and women aged 38 to 66. Their symptoms were the usual lung complaints and were often chronic, in several cases lasting for years. All seven had abnormal chest X-rays, most often a mass in the lung or an enlarged hilum (the root of the lung), sometimes with collapse of part of the lung. The authors noted that very large shadows sometimes appeared with fairly mild symptoms. Six of the seven had a lung removed (pneumonectomy). In the seventh, the diagnosis came from chest surgery done elsewhere. The tumor types discussed included leiomyosarcoma, lymphosarcoma, neurogenic sarcoma and one hemangiopericytoma. The authors concluded that surgical removal offers hope of long survival, and they called pneumonectomy the treatment of choice. The article does not mention asbestos.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Case series from one clinic, with a general discussion of the published medical literature and of treatment
• Who was studied: 7 patients with primary sarcoma of the lung recorded at the Ochsner Clinic (New Orleans) from March 1942 to March 1957. They were Negro and white persons of both sexes, aged 38 to 66. Over the same period the clinic had 190.000 consecutive registrations (as printed, apparently 190,000), and bronchogenic carcinoma was diagnosed in 890 patients.
• Main results:
  • In 6 of the 7 patients, pneumonectomy (removal of a lung) was successfully performed. In the seventh, chest surgery (thoracotomy) done elsewhere provided the diagnosis.
  • X-ray abnormalities were found in all 7 cases. The most common was a mass in the lung tissue or enlargement of the hilum, with or without collapse of part of the lung.
  • Symptoms were the usual lung complaints and were often chronic. In several patients they had been present for years.
  • Bronchograms (X-rays of the airways) were made in 3 of the 7 cases. In 2 of these they showed a definite blockage of an airway.
  • Laboratory test results were not distinctive in these cases.
  • One of the 7 cases was a hemangiopericytoma.
  • Both of the clinic's tumors in the neurogenic sarcoma or fibrosarcoma group were located at the hilum.
  • In addition to the 7 cases, one patient whose lung leiomyosarcoma was removed in 1936 had been followed periodically and had remained in good health.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that primary sarcoma of the lung is relatively rare. They stated that surgical removal offers hope of long survival, that pneumonectomy is the treatment of choice, and that radiation or chemotherapy after surgery may help in individual cases.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Sarcoma, Bronchogenic Carcinoma, Chest X-Ray, Hilum, Pneumonectomy.

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