Chest-Wall Tumors and Surgical Techniques: State-of-the-Art and Our Institutional Experience

The chest wall can be involved in both primary and secondary tumors, and even today, their management and treatment continue to be a challenge for surgeons. Primary chest-wall tumors are relatively rare and include a large group of neoplasms that can arise from not only bone or cartilage of the chest wall but also from associated subcutaneous tissue from muscle and blood vessels. Secondary tumors refer to a direct invasion of the chest wall by neoplasms located elsewhere in the body, mainly metastases from breast cancer and lung cancer. En-bloc surgical excision of the lesion should ensure adequate negative margins to avoid local recurrence, and a full thickness surgical resection is often required, and it can result in important chest-wall defects such as skeletal instability or impaired breathing dynamics. The reconstruction of large defects of the chest wall can be complex and often requires the use of prosthetic and biologic mesh materials. This article aims to review the literature on these tumor entities, focusing on the main surgical techniques and the most recent advances in chest-wall resection and reconstruction. We also report on the institutional experience our center.