ABSTRACT
Lymph node masses due to either lymphoma or metastatic nodes are the most common cause of soft tissue mass in any location.
More than two-thirds of primary mediastinal tumors in adults occur in the anterior mediastinum and are of benign pathology, whereas in children mediastinal tumors are more often malignant and seen in the posterior mediastinum (3). The factors most frequently associated with malignant mediastinal tumors are
Location • Patient age • The presence or absence of symptoms • The presence or absence of known malignant disease • elsewhere
Malignant masses are most commonly situated in the anterior compartment accounting for 60% of such lesions compared with 29% and 16% in the middle and posterior compartments, respectively ( Table 9.2 ) (4,5). Lymphoma and neuroblastoma are most frequent in the first and second decades, and lymphomas and germ cell tumors present most frequently in the second to fourth decades of life. Malignant lesions are more likely to be symptomatic (85%) than benign neoplasms (46%) (5).
