AIMS Immunohistochemistry is frequently employed to aid the distinction between mesothelioma and pulmonary adenocarcinoma metastatic to the pleura, but there is uncertainty as to which antibodies are most useful. We analysed published data in order to establish sensitivity and specificity of antibodies used to distinguish between these tumours with a view to defining the most appropriate immuno...

BACKGROUND Pancreatic adenocarcinoma comprises 85% of all cases of pancreatic malignancies. From a diagnostic standpoint, these tumors are readily diagnosed by fine needle aspiration, with an accuracy of greater than 90%; however it is often difficult to ascertain whether these are primary or metastatic in nature. This study was undertaken to see the usefulness of CK19, CA19-9 and a newly descr...

Background Occasionally, malignant pleural disease is only detected unexpectedly during surgery in patients with pulmonary adenocarcinoma. Previous studies mostly focused on the role of main tumor resection on patient's outcome, barely addressing the position of postoperative systemic therapy. Methods The medical records of 5321 non-small cell lung cancer patients who underwent thoracic surge...

INTRODUCTION The dorsal root ganglion is a rare manifestation of metastatic spread. We report what we believe to be the first case of metastasis of a pulmonary adenocarcinoma to the lumbar dorsal root ganglion. Only four descriptions for different primary tumors spreading to the dorsal root ganglion have been described in the literature so far. CASE PRESENTATION A 70-year-old Caucasian woman ...

CONTEXT With patients surviving longer after pancreatic resection, the challenges now is the management of the unresolved longer-term issues. CASE REPORT A 53-year-old woman with painless obstructive jaundice, underwent a pylorous preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy for a pT3N0M0 ampullary adenocarcinoma in 2001 (patchy chronic pancreatitis with mucinous metaplasia of background pancreatic duc...

BACKGROUND Since 2007 when anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements were discovered in non-small cell lung cancer, the ALK gene has received attention due to ALK-targeted therapy, and a notable treatment advantage has been observed in patients harboring the EML4/ALK translocation. However, using ALK-fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) as the standard method has demerits such as hig...

Breast metastasis from extra-mammary malignancy is not common. According to the literature, an incidence of 0.4-1.3% has been reported. We present three cases of metastasis to the breast from two pulmonary adenocarcinoma and one lung squamous carcinoma diagnosed concomitantly or metachronous with the primary tumor. Two pulmonary adenocarcinomas (a 43-year-old female and a 45-year old female) pr...

We report a case of Mycobacterium intracellulare (M. intracellulare) pulmonary infection with co-existing lung cancer and presenting as a solitary pulmonary nodule requiring differentiation from lung cancer. Computed tomography showed two nodules (20 mm) with spicula formation and pleural indentation on the right lower lobe of the lung (right S6 and S8). Transbronchial biopsies from the right S...

A 53 year old woman developed a cutaneous tumour implant in the needle track after transcutaneous fine needle biopsy of a pulmonary adenocarcinoma. The tumour implant was completely excised.

Fourteen patients with known primary colorectal adenocarcinoma underwent pulmonary resection for its pulmonary metasoasis. The cumurative survival rate at five years was 25.7% in all patients and 37.5% in 9 patients with a solitary metastasis. One of two patients with both pulmonary and hepatic metastases survived 33 months with no evidence of recurrence after pulmonary and hepatic resection. A...