Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Aug 10, 2017; 8(4): 366-370
Published online Aug 10, 2017. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v8.i4.366
Intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery with multiple lung metastases: Long-term survival case
Sonia García-Cabezas, Macarena Centeno-Haro, Simona Espejo-Pérez, Elvira Carmona-Asenjo, Alberto L Moreno-Vega, Rosa Ortega-Salas, Amalia Palacios-Eito
Sonia García-Cabezas, Amalia Palacios-Eito, Department of Radiation Oncology, Reina Sofia University Hospital, 14004 Cordoba, Spain
Macarena Centeno-Haro, Rosa Ortega-Salas, Department of Pathological Anatomy, Reina Sofia University Hospital, 14004 Cordoba, Spain
Simona Espejo-Pérez, Department of Radiology, Reina Sofia University Hospital, 14004 Cordoba, Spain
Elvira Carmona-Asenjo, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Reina Sofia University Hospital, 14004 Cordoba, Spain
Alberto L Moreno-Vega, Department of Medical Oncology, Reina Sofia University Hospital, 14004 Cordoba, Spain
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the acquisition of patient’s clinical data, writing and revision of this manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This publication has been approved by the Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: The patient provided informed written consent prior to publication.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Amalia Palacios-Eito, PhD, Department of Radiation Oncology, Reina Sofia University Hospital, Avda. Menéndez Pidal, s/n, 14004 Cordoba, Spain. amalia.palacios.sspa@juntadeandalucia.es
Telephone: +34-95-7011415 Fax: +34-95-7011414
Received: November 30, 2016
Peer-review started: December 1, 2016
First decision: February 17, 2017
Revised: June 12, 2017
Accepted: July 21, 2017
Article in press: July 24, 2017
Published online: August 10, 2017
Abstract

Pulmonary artery intimal sarcoma (PAIS) is a rare tumor with a very poor prognosis. Clinical and radiological findings usually mimic thromboembolic disease, leading to diagnostic delays. The treatment of choice is surgery, and adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy have limited results. We report the case of a 48-year-old male patient, initially suspected with pulmonary thromboembolism. The angio-CT revealed a filling defect in the pulmonary artery trunk. The patient underwent surgery, resulting in with complete resection of the mass with a diagnosis of PAIS. The tumor progressed rapidly in the lung, requiring surgery of multiple lung metastases. The patient was treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) on two occasions for new pulmonary lesions. In the last followup (4 years after initial diagnosis), the patient was disease-free. In conclusion, SBRT proved to be an alternative treatment to metastasectomy, allowing palliative chemotherapy to be delayed or omitted, which may result in improved quality of life.

Keywords: Intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery, Lung metastases, Metastasectomy, Stereotactic body radiation therapy, Treatment

Core tip: Intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery is a rare tumor with a very poor prognosis. It has been described in a limited number of reports. This case is a uncommon patient with long-term survival despite having rapid metastatic progression, who maintains a complete remission after initial surgical treatment, completed after occurrence of progression with stereotactic body radiotherapy.