Multicystic mesothelioma of the peritoneum

Our plain-English summary of Multicystic mesothelioma of the peritoneum, by L.T. Bui-Mansfield, G. Kim-Ahn, L.K. O'Bryant (AJR. American Journal of Roentgenology, 2002).

The study

• Authors: L.T. Bui-Mansfield, G. Kim-Ahn, L.K. O'Bryant
• Journal: AJR. American Journal of Roentgenology
• Published: 2002;178(2):402
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 8 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

This radiologic–pathologic conference report, from Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington, described a case of multicystic mesothelioma of the peritoneum. A 44-year-old woman was found to have an abdominal mass during a pelvic examination. Pelvic sonography showed a complex multiseptate cystic mass. MR imaging showed a 15 × 9 × 7 cm mass arising from the uterine fundus, with intermediate and high signal intensity on T2-weighted images and fine septations in the cystic component. She underwent total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. The specimen showed an irregular multilocular cystic mass attached to the uterine fundus. Microscopy found multiple mesothelium-lined cysts surrounded by fibrovascular stroma with adenomatoid changes. Drawing on published literature, the authors described multicystic mesothelioma as an intermediate form between benign adenomatoid mesothelioma and diffuse epithelial mesothelioma. They stated that it occurs mainly (84% of cases) in young or middle-aged women and chiefly affects the pelvic peritoneum. They stated that, unlike the malignant form of mesothelioma, it has no association with asbestos exposure. They summarized its sonographic, CT and MR appearances and its differential diagnoses, and noted that a correct preoperative diagnosis is almost never made because of its rarity. They reported that the tumor is not chemo- or radiosensitive, and that treatment is total surgical excision for localized lesions and debulking for more extensive ones.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This article was a case report about a single patient, presented at a radiology and pathology teaching conference at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. It described a 44-year-old woman whose abdominal mass was found during a pelvic examination. Pelvic ultrasound showed a mixed solid and cystic mass with fine internal dividing walls. MR imaging showed a 15 by 9 by 7 cm mass arising from the top of the uterus (the uterine fundus). She underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, which is removal of the uterus, both fallopian tubes and both ovaries. The removed tissue held an irregular mass of many cysts attached to the uterus. Under the microscope, the cysts were lined by mesothelium. The pathologic diagnosis was multicystic mesothelioma of the peritoneum. The article did not report whether this patient had any asbestos exposure. In their background discussion, the authors cited an earlier study (Weiss and Tavassoli, 1988) for the statement that, unlike the malignant form of mesothelioma, multicystic mesothelioma has no association with asbestos exposure. That statement was not a finding of this case report.

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 (one patient) from a radiologic-pathologic correlation conference, with a short discussion of earlier published literature
• Who was studied: One 44-year-old woman whose abdominal mass was found on pelvic examination; reported from Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA (article received 2001; date of the case not stated)
• Exposure: Not reported for this patient. The background discussion, citing Weiss and Tavassoli (1988), states that unlike the malignant form of mesothelioma, multicystic mesothelioma has no association with asbestos exposure.
• Main results:
  • The mass was discovered during a pelvic examination of the 44-year-old woman
  • Pelvic ultrasound showed a mixed solid and complex multilocular cystic mass with fine septations
  • MR imaging showed a 15 by 9 by 7 cm mass arising from the uterine fundus
  • The patient underwent total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy
  • The hysterectomy specimen showed an irregular, multilocular cystic mass attached to the uterine fundus
  • Microscopy showed multiple mesothelium-lined cysts surrounded by fibrovascular stroma with adenomatoid changes; the pathologic diagnosis was multicystic mesothelioma of the peritoneum

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Multicystic Mesothelioma (MCM), Peritoneum, Bilateral, Mesothelium, Adenomatoid Tumor, Mesothelioma, Asbestos Exposure.

Related studies

• Multi-institutional experience of diffuse intra-abdominal multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma — T.C. Chua, T.D. Yan, et al. (2011)
• Benign multicystic mesothelioma and peritoneal inclusion cysts: are they the same clinical and histopathological entities? A systematic review to find an evidence-based management — A.M.C. Rapisarda, A. Cianci, et al. (2018)
• Multicystic mesothelioma: Operative and long-term outcomes with cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intra peritoneal chemotherapy — E. Nizri, D. Baratti, et al. (2018)
• Multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma: A short review — C.H. Zhang, J.W. Yu, et al. (2017)
• Imaging appearance of benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma: a case report and review of the literature — V. Mehta, V. Chowdhary, et al. (2017)
• Long-term results of laparoscopic cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC for the curative treatment of low-grade pseudomyxoma peritonei and multicystic mesothelioma — F. Mercier, G. Jeremie, et al. (2020)

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