Chondroma and chondrosarcoma.

A chondrosarcoma is the most common primary malignant tumor of the chest wall. It usually presents on the anterior chest wall arising from the costochondral arches or sternum. It may occur as the result of malignant degeneration of a benign chondroma. Both chondrosarcomas and benign chondromas present as painful, slow-growing, hard, fixed, and nontender anterior chest wall masses. Microscopic differentiation between the two tumors is difficult and the treatment for both tumors is wide excision with a margin of at least 4 cm. Chemotherapy is ineffective and radiation therapy is used only for patients with tumors that are either not amenable to surgical resection or have positive resection margins.