Pleural mesothelioma with calcified liver metastases

Our plain-English summary of Pleural mesothelioma with calcified liver metastases, by G.D. Campbell, S.D. Greenberg (Chest, 1981).

The study

• Authors: G.D. Campbell, S.D. Greenberg
• Journal: Chest
• Published: 1981;79(2):229-30
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 15 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 003165).

Abstract

This is the second published report of a patient with a malignant pleural mesothelioma who presented with roentgenographic findings of massive liver calcifications. Necropsy examination revealed the hepatic calcifications to be dystrophic calcification within necrotic foci of metastatic malignant mesothelioma.

In plain English

This was a case report of one patient. The authors described it as the second published report of a malignant pleural mesothelioma that first showed up on X-ray as massive calcifications in the liver. The patient was a 36-year-old white man who smoked cigarettes (15 pack-years) and had worked for ten years as a knitter in a hosiery mill. The authors stated there was no known asbestos exposure. Thirty months earlier, a routine employment X-ray had shown massive liver calcifications, and their cause could not be found. He later developed fluid around both lungs and died of respiratory insufficiency 40 days after admission. At autopsy, tumor covered the surfaces of the lungs and diaphragm, with no lesions inside the lungs. It had spread to the hilar lymph nodes and the liver. Under the microscope it was a mixed type. The liver calcifications lay within dead areas of the liver metastases. No asbestos bodies were found in the tumor or the lung. The authors concluded that such liver calcifications may become a more frequent X-ray finding.

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, with autopsy findings)
• Who was studied: one 36-year-old white man, a cigarette smoker of 15 pack-years, seen at a Veterans Administration center in Jackson, Mississippi
• Exposure: no known asbestos exposure; the patient had worked as a knitter in a hosiery mill for ten years
• Main results:
  • Thirty months before his final illness, a routine employment X-ray showed massive liver calcifications. An intensive examination did not find their cause.
  • He developed fluid around both lungs (bilateral effusions). Fluid drawn from the right side was serosanguineous and negative for atypical cells, bacteria, fungi and tuberculosis.
  • He died of respiratory insufficiency 40 days after admission.
  • At autopsy, a grey-white rind of firm tumor covered the pleural surfaces of the lungs and diaphragm, and no lesions were seen inside the lungs.
  • Tumor was found in the pleura, the hilar lymph nodes and the liver.
  • The tumor had both carcinomatous and sarcomatous features (mixed type), and special stains for mucin were negative.
  • The liver calcifications formed within dead (necrotic) areas of the mesothelioma metastases in the liver.
  • No ferruginous (asbestos) bodies were found in the mesothelioma or in the underlying lung.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that, because malignant pleural mesotheliomas are occurring more often, massive calcifications within their liver metastases may become a more frequent X-ray finding.

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Hepatic tumors of long duration with eventual metastases. Two cases of leiomyosarcomatosis possibly arising from hamartomas of liver — R.A. Echevarria, V.M. Arean, et al. (1978)
• Benign tumors of the liver — K.G. Ishak, L. Rabin (1975)
• Solitary fibrous tumor of the liver: a clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical study of nine cases — C.A. Moran, K.G. Ishak, et al. (1998)
• Giant solitary fibrous tumor of the liver with metastasis to the skeletal system successfully treated with trisegmentectomy — S. Yilmaz, V. Kirimlioglu, et al. (2000)
• Genetic alterations in cancer knowledge system: analysis of gene mutations in mouse and human liver and lung tumors — M.A. Jackson, I. Lea, et al. (2006)
• On the histopathology of liver and liver tumours in thorium-dioxide patients — J. Visfeldt, H. Poulsen (1972)

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