The most obvious feature is probably the bilateral calcified pleural plaques, which are benign and consistent with previous asbestos exposure. However, the feature warranting most concern is the loss of the gastric air bubble. This 72-year-old man presented with a non-specific general deterioration in health. He subsequently underwent computed tomography scanning of his thorax and abdomen, whic...

Castleman’s disease is a rare disorder of the lymphoid tissue. We report the case of a female patient with bilateral otosclerosis, no respiratory symptoms, and pleural effusion discovered as an incidental finding on a chest X-ray. Computed tomography of the chest revealed a mediastinal mass. The biopsy findings demonstrated that it was a plasmacytic variant of Castleman’s disease. The patient u...

Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST) accounts for 5-10% of all malignant soft tissue tumors. It often affects the extremities and abdominal cavity and very rarely develops in the thoracic cavity. The incidence in the general population is 0.001%. In our paper we would like to present a case report of a 74-year-old female patient with primary MPNST of the pleural cavity which was prev...

Struma ovarii is a rare form of ovarian neoplasm in a form of mature teratoma and is composed predominantly of thyroid tissue. In the literature review, there has only been 10 cases of this tumor, associated with ascites and pleural effusion (Meig's Syndrome) and increased CA125 so far. In such cases, the tumor mimics malignant ovarian tumor. In this article, the case of a 72-year-old symptomat...

We report a very rare case of primary malignant lymphoma arising in the pleura with no history of persistent pyothorax. A 72-year-old male was hospitalized with dyspnea on effort and chest CT demonstrated a mass along the right chest wall. Right thoracotomy with complete en bloc resection of the pleural tumor was performed. Immunohistochemical examination of the pleural tumor showed that the hi...

* Study carried out at and sponsored by Gama Filho University. Jointly sponsored by FAPERJ E-26/170.647/2001. Correspondence to: Anete Trajman. Departamento de Medicina. Universidade Gama Filho. Rua Manoel Vitorino 553, Piedade, CEP 20748-900 – Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Submitted: 4 March 2004. Accepted, after review: 5 September 2004. Background: The diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis continues to be...

The patient was a 73-year-old female who had neversmoked and who had received a diagnosis of stage IVlung adenocarcinoma. In direct sequence method, the resected tumor specimen revealed Ex19 E746_A750del (deletion IN frame) 2235_2249del15 (Deletion). But T790M mutation was not detected in the specimen. This patient, not previouslytreated with gefitinib or erlotinib,had afatinib at a 40-mg dose....

The thoracic surgery team requested a chest CT scan, which revealed a lung mass and a pleural lesion. Pleural and lung biopsies were therefore performed. Pathological findings were suggestive of sarcoma or sarcomatoid mesothelioma. Further investigation included CT scans of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis, as well as magnetic resonance imaging of the chest. Chest CT and magnetic resonance imagin...

In an attempt to distinguish reactive from neoplastic mesothelial proliferation, the histological material and clinical records of 153 patients on whom open or closed pleural biopsies were performed during 1976 were reviewed. In six of the 10 patients subsequently shown to have malignant mesothelioma the specimens from closed pleural biopsy had been reported as negative or equivocal but in retr...