• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.85-89
• /
• 2014

Pleural metastasis from breast cancer is a common manifestation. While pleural effusion is the most frequent finding, it is relatively rare for pleural nodularity and plaque that do not accompany pleural effusion. We report a patient with a rapidly growing huge pleural mass without pleural effusion caused by breast cancer. The patient was treated for severe dyspnea caused by the pleural mass. Along with the case report, we performed a systematic review of management of dyspnea in terminal cancer patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.43 no.6
• /
• pp.829-832
• /
• 2010

A primary pleural small cell carcinoma is an extremely rare disease. Because of a newly developed metastatic lesion, we performed an operation on a patient who had undergone a right upper lobe lobectomy for adenocarcinoma 3 years previously. We resected the pleural lesion and the pathology report showed that it was not a metastatic lesion, but rather, it was a primary pleural small cell carcinoma. So we reported this case and we review the relevant literature.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.36 no.8
• /
• pp.614-618
• /
• 2003

Pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB) is a rare intrathoracic neoplasm, found solely in childhood. The usual symptoms are dyspnea, chest discomfort, recurrent respiratory infections, fever, dry cough, and chest pain. The progress of PPB is usually aggressive and its progress is generally poor. Lymphatic spread to the hilar and mediastinal nodes can occur Distant metastasis is found in brain, bones, and intra-abdominal organs. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice. When the disease Is too extensive for surgical resection, neoadjuvant chemotherapy can be used. We report 2 cases of pleuropulrnonary blastoma in children successfully treated with multimodal therapy.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.565-573
• /
• 1998

Malignant pleural effusions are most commonly associated with lung cancers, however, it also can be resulted from breast cancers, ovarian cancers, stomach cancers and so on. According to the their histologic types, adenocarcinoma have been known as the most common cell type of malignant pleural effusions and squamous cell carcinoma is rare. We herein present incidences, clinical characteristics and survivals of malignant pleural effusions according to their cell types and primary diseases. The objects are 84 malignant pleural effusion patients diagnosed by pleural fluid cytologic examination or pleural biopsy from Jan. 1992 to May. 1997 in Seoul National University Hospital. A retrospective chart review on their histologic types, biochemical parameters and survivals is described. Among 84 patients, 52 were males and the other 32 were females with 1.6:1 of male and female ratio and their mean age was 57.6 years old. Common symptoms of them wele dyspnea, cough, sputum and pleuritic chest pain. The proportions of bloody nature of effusion, lymphocyte dominant pleural effusion, exudative effusions were 66%, 39% and 93%, respectively. They consisted of 54 cases of adenocarcinoma(33 cases of them were lung cancers), and 10 cases of squamous cell carcinoma (8 cases of them were lung cancers), 10 cases of malignant lymphoma, 8 cases of small cell lung cancer and a case of mesothelioma and leukemia. There was no differences in characteristics of effusions, clinical features and survivals between each histologic cell types. Analyzing them according to primary diseases, no difference except longer survivals in malignant pleural effusions from breast cancer than from other cancers was observed. In conclusion, considering the incidences of histologic types of lung cancers during same period (squamous cell carcinoma; 47%, adenocarcinoma; 33%, small cell lung cancer; 12% and large cell carcinoma; 2%), malignant pleural effusions more likely occurred in adenocarcinoma than other cell types of lung cancers and there was no significant difference of clinical characteristics between histologic types.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.54 no.5
• /
• pp.563-569
• /
• 2003

Background : Pleural effusions with high amylase levels are reported frequently in patients with pancreatic diseases, a rupture of the esophagus and a malignancy. However, there is no data available on the clinical features of an amylase-rich pleural effusion in Korea. This report describes the causes of the high amylase levels in a pleural effusion and analyzes its association with malignancy. Methods : The records of patients with an amylase-rich pleural effusion who were assessed at the Gyeongsang National University Hospital from January 1998 to August 2002 were examined retrospectively, and the distribution of amylase levels in those patients, the causative diseases, and the histological type in the case of a malignancy were analyzed. Among the 532 patients whose pleural effusion was evident on a chest X-ray, there were 36 cases with an amylase-rich pleural effusion. The amylase levels were determined by an enzyme method (Hitach 747 autoanalyzer). Results : Of the 36 patients with an amylase-rich pleural effusion, there were 18 patients(50%) associated with a malignancy, 8 patients(22%) with a parapneumonic effusion, 7 patients(19%) with pancreatic disease, and 3 patients with other causes. The amylase level in a pleural effusion due to pancreatic disease was much higher than that due to other causes(p<0.01). Among the malignant pleural effusions with high amylase levels, the origin of the malignancy was a primary lung cancer in 13 cases and metastatic lung cancer in 5 cases. The histological types of malignant causes were adenocarcinoma in 10 cases(56%), squamous cell carcinoma in 2 cases(11%) and unknown type of carcinoma in 6 cases. The amylase level in the adenocarcinoma cases was much higher than that in the other cell type carcinomas(p<0.01). There was no significant association between the amylase level and the glucose level among the malignant cases with amylase-rich pleural effusion(p=0.21). Conclusion : The most frequent cause of an amylase-rich pleural effusion was a malignancy. Primary lung cancer and adenocarcinoma were the most common malignancies and histological types associated with a malignant pleural effusion with high amylase levels. The amylase level in a pleural effusion secondary to pancreatic disease was much higher than from any other causes.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.85-92
• /
• 1997

Background : The standard treatment of recurrent, symptomatic malignant pleural effusion is intrapleural instillation of a chemical agent in an attempt to achieve a sterile inflammation and pleurodesis. There are many drugs used as pleural sclerosing agents, but the efficiency and side effects are different. The present study was undertaken to compare the commonly used drugs, doxycycline and bleomycin. Methods : Thirty-four patients with malignant pleural effusion who needed repeated thoracentesis were randomized to receive treatment with intrapleural instillation of doxycycline or bleomycin Fluid volumes before and after pleurodesis, drainge time, and side effects were analyzed, and the response to treatment was evaluated by clinical examination and chest radiography during admission in the hospital. Also median survival rime were evaluated according to the responses. Results : The response rate was higher in the patients receiving doxycycline than in those receiving bleomycin (87.5% vs 50.0%, p=0.02), and fever, nausea and vomiting were more common in the patients receiving bleomycin. The median survival time was significantly longer in the patients who responded to the sclerotherapy regardless of sclerosing agents. Conclusions : Chemical pleurodesis with doxycycline or bleomycin could reduce or stop pleural effusions and prolong the median survival rimes in these patients. Doxycycline appeared to be more efficient as sclerosing agent than bleomycin in the short-term follow-up periods. But a prospective study with a larger number of patients is warranted.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.39 no.9 s.266
• /
• pp.722-724
• /
• 2006

Pleuropulmonary bastoma (PPB) is a rare intrathoracic malignant neoplasm in children, differ from pulmonary blastoma in adults. PPB is usually aggressive and has wide-metastases at the time of diagnosis. The therapeutic medality of PPB is extensive surgical resection with neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. We report a case of a cystic pieuropulmonary blastoma treated with surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.594-599
• /
• 1995

Although papillary carcinoma of the thyroid generally follows an indolent course characterized by slow growth and the absence of distant metastases, several available reports suggest that metastasis to bone and/or lung parenchyma may occur infrequently. But pleural metastases are known to be very rare, so there have been only two case reports about the pleural metastases of papillary thyroid carcinoma in the literatures. Even the case of occult papillary thyroid carcinoma presenting as a metastatic pleural effusion has been never been reported. Recently we experienced a case with the chief complaint of dyspnea due to massive pleural effusion, the cytologic examination of which revealed the papillary carcinoma with psamomma bodies. The examination of the thyroid revealed no definite primary tumor. The total thyroidectomy was done with the plan of post-operative radioactive iodine treatment and the pathologic result confirmed the occult papillary microcarcinoma as expected. With the present case report, the extension of the clinical spectrum. of metastatic papillary carcinoma of the thyroid is expected.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.35-42
• /
• 1993

Background: In order to establish the etiology of the pleural effusion, routine analysis of the fluid, bacteriologic studies, cytologic tests and pleural biopsies are currently being employed. However, even with the above mentioned tests, the exact causes cannot be determined in approximately 10-20% of cases. The purpose of our study is to determine the diagnostic value of measuring ADA activity and CEA simultaneously in various pleural fluids which their etiologies have confirmed Methods: We have studied 61 cases of tuberculous pleural effusions, 17 cases of suspected tuberculous pleural effusions, 17 cases of malignant pleural effusions, 22 cases of suspected malignant pleural effusions, and 7 cases of parapneumonic pleural effusions. We have measured the ADA activity and CEA level simultaneously in pleural fluid samples in each cases. Results: 1) The ADA activity in tuberculous pleural effusion was significantly higher than that in malignant effusion. 2) The CEA level in malignant pleural effusion was significantly higher than that in tuberculous effusion. 3) With the cut-off values of the pleural fluid ADA activity more than 40 U/L and the CEA level less than 12 ng/mL, the sensitivity was 86.9%, and the specificity was 100% in the diagnosis of tuberculous effusion. With the cut-off values of the pleural fluid CEA level more than 12 g/mL and the ADA activity less than 40 U/L, the sensitivity was 76.5%, and the specificity was 100% in the diagnosis of malignant effusion. Conclusion: It is suggested that the combined assay of pleural fluid ADA activity and CEA level is very useful in the differential diagnosis of tuberculous and malignant pleural effusion.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.64 no.4
• /
• pp.314-317
• /
• 2008

We report the patient presented with a left-sided pleural effusion. Pleural fluid analysis revealed lymphocyte-dominant exudates with lower level of adenosine deaminase and negative cytologic malignancy. Thoracoscopic examination and histologic examination revealed metastatic nodules on pleurae, proven to be from the papillary thyroid cancer. There were no other sites of distant metastases. Though papillary thyroid cancer is characterized with slow progression and relatively good prognosis, metastatic pleural effusion as an initial manifestation of undiagnosed papillary thyroid cancer can be considered.