Superior Pulmonary Sulcus Tumors and Pancoast's Syndrome

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 337; no. 19; pp. 1370 - 1376
• Main Authors: Arcasoy, Selim M, Jett, James R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 06-11-1997
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Cancer; Carcinoma, Bronchogenic - diagnosis; Carcinoma, Bronchogenic - etiology; Carcinoma, Bronchogenic - therapy; Humans; Medical disorders; Medical sciences; Neoplasm Staging; Pancoast Syndrome - diagnosis; Pancoast Syndrome - etiology; Pancoast Syndrome - therapy; Pneumology; Prognosis; Respiratory diseases; Tumors of the respiratory system and mediastinum; Human; Eye disease; Nervous system diseases; Pancoast syndrome; Respiratory disease; Etiology; Paraneoplastic syndrome; Malignant tumor; Bibliographic review
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199711063371907

Pancoast's syndrome is a constellation of characteristic symptoms and signs that includes shoulder and arm pain along the distribution of the eighth cervical nerve trunk and first and second thoracic nerve trunks, Horner's syndrome, and weakness and atrophy of the muscles of the hand, most commonly caused by local extension of an apical lung tumor at the superior thoracic inlet.
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These tumors are called superior pulmonary sulcus tumors or Pancoast's tumors. Nearly 90 years after the first documented case,
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Pancoast described the clinical and radiologic findings of thoracic-inlet tumors. Pancoast mistakenly believed that these tumors emanated from epithelial rests . . .