Benign cystic mesothelioma of the liver

Our plain-English summary of Benign cystic mesothelioma of the liver, by P. Flemming, T. Becker, J. Klempnauer, et al (The American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 2002).

The study

• Authors: P. Flemming, T. Becker, J. Klempnauer, D. Högemann, A. Kreft, H.H. Kreipe
• Journal: The American Journal of Surgical Pathology
• Published: 2002;26(11):1523-7
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 17 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article is a case report about one patient, an otherwise healthy 51-year-old woman. An abdominal ultrasound done for back pain unexpectedly showed a mass in her liver. Magnetic resonance imaging suggested hepatocellular carcinoma, a liver cancer. A frozen section taken during surgery gave no certain diagnosis, and a kind of angioma (a blood-vessel growth) without evidence of malignancy was discussed. Surgeons removed part of the left lobe of the liver and with it the whole tumor, an 8-cm, partially cystic, encapsulated mass. The authors reported the tissue findings under the microscope, from staining tests and from electron microscopy, and described the tumor as a benign cystic mesothelioma of the liver. The patient was free of disease 2 years later. The authors also re-examined slides from the one earlier reported "hepatic mesothelioma" and judged it a different tumor type. The authors concluded that this tumor may rarely occur in the liver and can look like cancer on imaging. They said follow-up will show whether it often comes back. The article does not mention asbestos.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: case report (single patient)
• Who was studied: one otherwise healthy 51-year-old woman with back pain, treated at Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Germany
• Main results:
  • Ultrasound unexpectedly found a liver mass, and MRI showed a lesion suggestive of hepatocellular carcinoma
  • Frozen section during surgery gave no certain diagnosis; a kind of angioma without evidence of malignancy was discussed
  • The removed tumor was an 8-cm, partially cystic, encapsulated mass
  • About 30% of tumor cell nuclei were positive for estrogen receptor
  • Proliferation activity (Ki-67) was below 1%
  • Electron microscopy showed microvilli and desmosomes
  • Comparative genomic hybridization showed no chromosomal aberrations
  • The patient was free of disease 2 years after surgery
  • On review of slides from the only previously reported 'hepatic mesothelioma', the authors found a completely different pattern from this case and interpreted it as a mucinous cystadenoma
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that benign cystic mesothelioma may, on rare occasions, occur in the liver, mimicking hepatocellular carcinoma on imaging and angioma on initial tissue assessment
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors note that it is not yet known whether liver cystic mesothelioma shares the high recurrence rate of cystic mesothelioma in general; follow-up will tell

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Benign cystic mesothelioma of the liver: A rare hepatic cyst — W. Wang, H.Y. Lai, et al. (2021)
• Peritoneal benign cystic mesothelioma: a case report and review of the literature — S. van Ruth, M.W. Bronkhorst, et al. (2002)
• Benign cystic mesothelioma associated with ipsilateral renal agenesis: a case report and review of literature — D. Murro, A. Harbhajanka, et al. (2014)
• A rare case of benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma misdiagnosed as hydatid cyst found in the liver parenchyma and abdomen cavity of a male with asbestos exposure — A.B. Kelarji, M.S. Alshutaihi, et al. (2021)
• Giant benign cystic peritoneal mesothelioma: US, CT, and MRI findings — A. Ozgen, D. Akata, et al. (1998)
• van Ruth S, Bronkhorst MWGA, van Coeverden F, Zoetmulder FAN. Peritoneal benign cystic mesothelioma: a case report and review of literature. Eur J Surg Oncol 2002; 28(2): 192-5 — K. Sethna, F. Mohamed, et al. (2002)

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