Peritoneal mesothelioma: case report and review of the literature

Our plain-English summary of Peritoneal mesothelioma: case report and review of the literature, by A. Chachati, P. Hoyoux, V. Smoliar (Acta Clinica Belgica, 1984).

The study

• Authors: A. Chachati, P. Hoyoux, V. Smoliar
• Journal: Acta Clinica Belgica
• Published: 1984;39(3):141-7
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article reports one patient's case and briefly reviews earlier published studies of peritoneal mesothelioma, a cancer of the abdominal lining. The patient, a 69-year-old man, had been exposed to asbestos from 1925 to 1959 through building materials. No fiber type was named. He was admitted with severe fluid build-up in the abdomen (ascites) and breathlessness. Two years earlier, his ascites had been attributed to biliary cirrhosis. When surgery was done to repair a hernia, tissue from tumor nodules, together with other test results, suggested a digestive-tract adenocarcinoma that had spread. He died 15 days after the operation from a massive pulmonary embolism. At autopsy, tumor nodules covered the peritoneum and abdominal organs and were also found in the lungs. The pleura was normal and no primary tumor was found elsewhere. Microscopy showed a mesothelioma of mixed epithelial and mesenchymal pattern, and lung sections showed asbestos bodies and interstitial fibrosis. The authors reported that the correct diagnosis was possible only at autopsy. They concluded that diagnosing peritoneal mesothelioma remains difficult despite an increasing number of reported cases.

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 of a single patient, with a review of the literature
• Who was studied: One 69-year-old man treated in the medical ward (authors' affiliation: Université de Liège, Belgium); dates of his care are not given
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure from 1925 to 1959 involving building materials; fiber type not stated
• Main results:
  • Before death, the patient's ascites was considered secondary to biliary cirrhosis; no liver biopsy was performed at that time
  • At laparotomy for hernia repair, whitish nodules 1 to 4 cm across studded the abdominal peritoneum, liver and spleen; the nodule histology and other test results suggested an adenocarcinoma of the GI tract with multiple metastases
  • The patient died 15 days after laparotomy; the immediate cause of death was massive pulmonary embolism
  • At autopsy, no primary tumor was found at any other site; the appendix and pleura were normal
  • At autopsy, the lungs showed no visible fibrosis to the naked eye but had multiple whitish tumor nodules
  • Peritoneal and lung tumor nodules showed a mesothelioma of mixed epithelial and mesenchymal pattern
  • Sections from the basal segments of the lungs showed asbestos bodies and interstitial fibrosis
  • Hyaluronic acid in the ascitic fluid measured 1950 (the unit is garbled in the scanned text)
  • The correct diagnosis was possible only at autopsy
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the diagnosis of peritoneal mesothelioma remains difficult despite the increasing incidence of reported cases

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma, Peritoneal mesothelioma.

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

Related studies

• Primary malignant peritoneal mesothelioma. A report of seven cases and a review of the literature — J.A. Asensio, P. Goldblatt, et al. (1990)
• Peritoneal benign cystic mesothelioma: a case report and review of the literature — S. van Ruth, M.W. Bronkhorst, et al. (2002)
• CT findings and serum ca 125 levels in malignant peritoneal mesothelioma: report of 11 new cases and review of the literature — M. Kebapci, E. Vardareli, et al. (2003)
• Imaging appearance of benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma: a case report and review of the literature — V. Mehta, V. Chowdhary, et al. (2017)
• Primary peritoneal mesothelioma: case series and literature review — H. Sharma, I. Bell, et al. (2011)
• Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma in children: description of two cases and review of the literature — M. Kovalivker, A. Motovic (1985)

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