Pulmonary tumor embolism from recurrent breast cancer with longitudinal computed tomography evaluation
Masahiro Onishia Tetsu Kobayashia Atsushi Tomarua Yoshinori Takahashia Kentaro Fujiwaraa Masahito Urawaa Takehiro Takagia Hiroyasu Kobayashia Gabazza Estebanb Osamu Taguchia
aDepartment of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine
bDepartment of Immunology, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine
A 44-year-old woman with a diagnosis of breast cancer was treated with chemotherapy and endocrine therapy after resection of the tumor in 2006. The disease control was good for 4 years. In June 2010, she had a sudden onset of chest pain and bloody sputum. Chest CT scan showed multiple pleural nodular shadows. She was followed up under close clinical observation because the symptoms disappeared, but she was admitted to our hospital in August 2010 for a recurrence of symptoms. Chest CT revealed an appearance of new lesions with partial improvement. Furthermore, FDG-PET/CT showed a focal slight increase in FDG uptake. We performed an open-lung biopsy to confirm the etiology. The histopathological diagnosis was pulmonary tumor embolism and pulmonary infarction caused by recurrent breast cancer. Multiple pulmonary tumor embolism is a rare clinical case. Longitudinal evaluation of CT findings and FDG uptake in FDG-PET/CT are presented.
Breast cancer Pulmonary tumor embolism Pulmonary infarction CT FDG-PET/CT
Received 16 May 2013 / Accepted 19 Aug 2013
AJRS, 3(1): 142-147, 2014