title: A solitary chest wall metastasis from unknown primary hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: We report a 61-year-old male smoker who was admitted to our hospital for treatment of a moderately growing tumour on the right anterolateral chest wall causing chest pain during coughing. Chest computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging showed a 55 x 50 mm inhomogeneous mass around the 4th rib but not penetrating the subcutis and lung. Neither a preoperative technetium scintigraphy nor a needle biopsy revealed the primary nature of the tumour. The patient was treated with en bloc resection and partial resection of the adjacent 3rd and 4th rib. The frozen section diagnosis confirmed a metastasis from a primary hepatocellular carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. stefan.hofmann@medizin.uni-halle.de
authors.forename: Hans-Stefan
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Hofmann
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spillner
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hammer
authors.forename: Claudius
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Diez
mesh_terms: D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009382:Neoplasms, Unknown Primary / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D012272:Ribs; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed