Primary synovial sarcoma is a soft tissue tumor which originates from synoviallike undeveloped mesenchymal structures. Here, we report the case of a giant mediastinal sarcoma in a 41-year-old female patient. After diagnosis, she underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Due to its low efficacy, we collegially decided to undergo cytoreductive debulking surgery. The mass invaded the phrenic nerve bilaterally and its excision caused a severe lesion of the left nerve and a partial impairment of the right one. Thus, plastic surgeons decided to reconstruct the right phrenic nerve employing the contralateral remaining fibers. The invasiveness of this tumor, its difficult removal, histological profile and the peculiar technique to preserve diaphragmatic function classify this case as very rare. The therapeutic strategy was based on interdisciplinary teamwork which comprised several specialists' opinions. Our strategy allowed us to pursue the challenging objective to give a young woman with a severe diagnosis the best possible chance of achieving a good quality of life. To the best of our knowledge, this phrenic nerve reconstructive technique is very rare and has not previously been reported in the literature. The report emphasizes that it is possible to deal with an apparently impossible case through a collaborative approach involving several different medical specialist professionals.

Thymic carcinoma is an epithelial tumor derived from thymic epithelial cells. Thymic tumors may be associated with other simultaneous and/or metachronous extra-thymic tumors (e.g., lung cancer). Here, we report a case of simultaneous surgical management of lung and mediastinal neoplasm together with a review of the literature. During radiological follow-up for prostate and colorectal cancer, an 82-year-old man was diagnosed with lung cancer with simultaneous mediastinal suspected neoplasm. Both were surgically removed with a single intervention performed via a uniportal videoassisted thoracic surgery (uni-VATS) approach. The literature emphasizes how extrathymic cancer can be diagnosed before, concurrently and consecutively with thymic neoplasia. The surgical treatment of such simultaneous cancer is challenging. We succeeded in the excision of both neoplasia with a mini-invasive surgical technique. This report highlights the feasibility of uniportal VATS in a patient with very unusual clinical and oncological history.

Background: The diffusion of lung cancer screening programs has increased the detection of both solid and ground-glass opacity (GGO) sub-centimetric lesions, leading to the necessity for histological diagnoses. A percutaneous CT-guided biopsy may be challenging, thus making surgical excision a valid diagnostic alternative. CT-guided hydrogel plug deployment (BioSentry®) was recently proposed to simplify intraoperative nodule localization. Here, we report our initial experience. Methods: We evaluated 62 patients with single, small, peripheral, non-subpleural pulmonary GGO that was suspicious for cancer. All lesions were preoperatively marked, using CT-guidance, with a hydrogel plug (BioSentry®). Then, a uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopy (uniVATS) wedge resection was performed. If cancer was confirmed at the frozen section, a major lung resection was then performed. The study’s end points were the rates of intraoperative localization and of successful resection. Results: The hydrogel plug was correctly placed in 54 of the 62 cases, leading to an effective resection of the target lesion. In the remaining eight cases, the plug was displaced, and so the identification of pleural erosions due to the previous percutaneous procedure guided the resection. The uniVATS resection success rate was 98.3%. Conclusions: CT-guided hydrogel plug placement allowed for the successful detection of lung GGOs and resection with the uniVATS approach. This device allowed us to obtain lung cancer diagnoses and successfully treat 85.4% of cases.

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