Abstract
Mediastinal masses include a wide variety of entities both neoplastic and not often presenting with several clinical and pathological features thus constituting a diagnostic challenge for clinicians.
In about half of cases, a mediastinal mass can be an incidental finding in patients who undergo imaging studies for other reasons.
Local symptoms, if present, may be due to compressive or infiltrative effects of the mass, while systemic symptoms are due to release of hormones, cytokines, and antibodies. In general, malignant lesions are more likely to be symptomatic.
In most patients, a combination of demographic information, clinical presentation, and imaging features allows a presumptive diagnosis, which can be definitely addressed only after tissue biopsy.
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Ciardiello, F., Morgillo, F., Viscardi, G. (2018). Clinical Approach: Recommendations for the Clinicians. In: Franco, R., Zito Marino, F., Giordano, A. (eds) The Mediastinal Mass. Current Clinical Pathology. Humana, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90368-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90368-2_2
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