| Abstract: | Background Between January 1980 and December 1999, 88 patients underwent thesurgical resection of sternal tumors: 30 primary malignant
tumors, 28 local relapses or metastases from breast carcinomas, 16 other types of tumor, and 14 radionecroses.
Methods The sternectomies were total in 8 cases, subtotal in 32, and partial in 48. Prosthetic materials covered by flaps of myocutaneous
or muscle tissue were used in 55 patients, prosthetic material alone in 13, myocutaneous or muscle flaps alone in 5, and other
techniques in the remaining 15. The resection was radical in 78 cases and palliative in the other 10
Results Forty-eight of the subjects who underwent radical surgery were alive and disease free at the end of the follow-up period.
The expected 10-year survival of the patients treated for primary tumors is approximately 85% (Kaplan-Meier), and that of
the patients with relapsing breast carcinomas is the same as after 5 years (41.8%).
Conclusions In our experience, the treatment of neoplasms by means of a broad sternal resection followed by a reconstruction based on
the use of prosthetic materials is an effective and safe solution that considerably improves the quality of life and makes
it possible to perform curative broad radical resections in the case of primary sternal resections.
Presented at the 54th Annual Cancer Symposium of the Society of Surgical Oncology, Washington, DC, March 15–18, 2001. |
