What is a chest wall tumor? As the name implies, a chest wall tumor is a tumor located in the chest wall that can affect lung function. However, clinically, breast and thoracic spine tumors are often classified as breast surgery and orthopedics, while tumors in the spinal canal are often classified as neurosurgery. So the chest wall tumors referred to by thoracic surgeons do not include tumors in the above areas. Of course, tumors of internal organs in the chest cavity are also not considered as chest wall tumors. Are chest wall tumors common? Chest wall tumors are actually very common, but most of them are small benign tumors located in subcutaneous or superficial chest wall tissues. Since patients are mostly seen and operated in outpatient clinics, it is difficult to accurately count their incidence, while primary chest wall tumors account for 5% of all chest tumors and 1%-2% of primary chest tumors among inpatient surgery patients. What are the tumors of chest wall? Chest wall tumors can be divided into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary chest wall tumors are divided into benign and malignant, almost half of them are benign, the most common ones are osteochondroma, chondrosarcoma and fibrous dysplasia, while there are many types of malignant chest wall tumors, more than half of them are metastases from other malignant tumors to chest wall or direct invasion from tumors of neighboring organs (breast, mediastinum, lung, pleura, etc.) (also known as secondary chest wall tumors). secondary chest wall tumors). The most common malignant tumors of chest wall origin (primary) are sarcomas, which account for about 45% of soft tissue origin and 55% of bone origin. Chondrosarcoma is the most common bone sarcoma of the chest wall, mostly in the anterior ribs, followed by the sternum, scapula or clavicle. Other bone tumors include: osteosarcoma and small cell tumors (Ewing’s sarcoma, Askin’s sarcoma, etc.), and the most common soft tissue malignancies are fibrosarcoma (sclerofibrosarcoma, neurofibrosarcoma, etc.) and malignant fibrous histiocytoma. Other primary chest wall tumors include: chondroblastoma, osteoblastoma, melanoma, lymphoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, lymphangiosarcoma, multiple myeloma (or plasmacytoma ), etc. How are chest wall tumors treated? The most effective treatment for primary chest wall tumors is surgical resection, while secondary tumors depend on the situation and will not be discussed here. Generally speaking, benign or small chest wall tumors can often be surgically removed in an outpatient setting under local anesthesia, while larger chest wall tumors, especially malignant chest wall tumors, require extensive clinical experience and surgical removal under general anesthesia. Removal of huge tumors is challenging for thoracic surgeons, who must not only remove the tumor completely, but also skillfully reconstruct the integrity of the chest wall. The following is a picture of a huge anterior chest wall tumor removed in our hospital, which was not only huge but also invaded the fatal large blood vessels in the chest and so on. Figure:Giant chest wall tumor ready for resectionFigure:Chest wall reconstruction after tumor resection