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Correspondence
Extrapulmonary small cell carcinoma mimicking malignant pleural mesothelioma
  1. Kaoru Noguchi1,
  2. Nobukazu Fujimoto1,
  3. Michiko Asano1,
  4. Yasuko Fuchimoto1,
  5. Katsuichiro Ono1,
  6. Shinji Ozaki1,
  7. Katsuyuki Hotta2,
  8. Katsuya Kato3,
  9. Hiroko Toda4,
  10. Koji Taguchi5,
  11. Takumi Kishimoto1
  1. 1Department of Respiratory Medicine, Okayama Rosai Hospital, Okayama, Japan
  2. 2Department of Respiratory Medicine, Okayama University Hospital, Okayama, Japan
  3. 3Department of Radiology, Okayama University Hospital, Okayama, Japan
  4. 4Department of Pathology, Okayama University Hospital, Okayama, Japan
  5. 5Department of Pathology, Okayama Rosai Hospital, Okayama, Japan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Nobukazu Fujimoto, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Okayama Rosai Hospital, 1-10-25 Chikkomidorimachi, Minamiku, Okayama 7028055, Japan; nfuji{at}okayamaH.rofuku.go.jp

https://doi.org/10.1136/jclinpath-2012-201401

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    We report a case with a history of occupational asbestos exposure in which malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) was suspected clinically and diagnosed postmortem as pleural involvement of extrapulmonary small cell carcinoma (SCC). An 85-year-old man with a 65 pack-year history of smoking was referred to our hospital in June 2011. The patient had been exposed to asbestos in the iron production industry over the course of 30 years, and an irregular thickening of the right pleura was observed on chest CT at a medical check-up. The patient had a history of chronic hepatitis C and had been undergone transurethral resection for urothelial bladder cancer five times since 2006. Chest CT revealed neoplastic thickening of the right pleura, which had grown over 6 months (figure 1). The CT scan demonstrated bilateral pleural plaques, but no mass-like lesion in other organs, including the lungs, or mediastinal lymphadenopathy. The patient was suspected as having MPM and scheduled for thoracoscopic pleural biopsy, but his general condition worsened rapidly and he …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors KN treated the patient and drafted the paper. NF treated the patient and drafted and revised the paper. MA, YF, KO and SO contributed to the data monitoring and drafted and revised the paper. KH first found the CT finding of the patient and analysed the patient data. KK analysed the radiological images of the patients. HT and KT contributed to the pathological examination of the patients. TK finally approved the work to be published.

    • Funding This research is a part of the research and development and the dissemination projects related to the 13 fields of occupational injuries and illnesses of the Japan Labour Health and Welfare Organization.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.