[Primary leiomyosarcoma of the inferior vena cava--a report of 4 cases].

Primary leiomyosarcoma of the inferior vena cava (IVC) is of rare occurrence. From 1988 to 1992, 4 cases, all female, were treated in our hospital. Symptoms of this rare tumor were not typical except pain in the abdomen and the back. But it was painless in one patient. Diagnosis was solely dependent on imaging with regard to tumor localization, size and extent of invasion to adjacent organs. The best treatment of choice was excision of the tumor with the IVC affected. Tumor located in the middle and lower third of IVC usually involving the right renal vein. Therefore, it was necessary to remove the right kidney, when provided the left kidney was functionally normal. One patient died postoperatively of pulmonary embolism and the other died of hepatic failure due to multiple metastases in the liver.