[Solitary fibroma of the pleura - clinical findings and prognosis].

Solitary fibrous tumours of the pleura can arise from either the visceral or the parietal pleura. Female and male subjects are affected equally; solitary tumours of the pleura are found at all ages with a main incidence in the sixth and seventh decades. The current literature describes the origin of both benign and malign tumour cells as being from multipotential submesothelial fibrous cells. The clinical appearance is unspecific and characteristic symptoms are lacking; cough, feeling of pressure in the thoracic chest or dyspnoea are the main leading symptoms and correlate with tumour size. A CT scan of the chest is the diagnostic tool of choice. Frequently, a solitary tumour of the pleura is found incidentally. Paraneoplastic syndromes are described and hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathia (HPO) is the most common in cases of a solitary fibrous tumour of the pleura. The therapy of choice is complete surgical resection. There are no data supporting a neoadjuvant or adjuvant therapy. There are no known risk factors and complete resection is the only factor of prognostic relevance. Patients with a benign solitary fibrous tumour of the pleura have a far better survival compared to those with the malignant variant. In two recent reviews, the 5- and 10-year survival rates are described as being 97 and 90 %, respectively, for benign tumours compared with 89 and 88 % for malignant fibromas.