Primary malignant mesothelioma of the greater omentum: report of a case

Our plain-English summary of Primary malignant mesothelioma of the greater omentum: report of a case, by Y.C. Liu, Y.L. Kuo, C.P. Yu, et al (Surgery Today, 2004).

The study

• Authors: Y.C. Liu, Y.L. Kuo, C.P. Yu, H.S. Wu, J.C. Yu, C.J. Chen, D.C. Chan, C.Y. Yu, C.B. Hsieh, T.W. Chen
• Journal: Surgery Today
• Published: 2004;34(9):780-3
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 10 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

We report a rare case of primary malignant mesothelioma of the greater omentum. To our knowledge, only one other such case has been described in the English literature. The patient was a 61-year-old Taiwanese woman without any history of exposure to asbestos, who presented with lower back pain. Abdominal sonography and computed tomography showed a 12 x 9 x 9-cm(3) mass occupying the lower abdomen. Laparotomy revealed a tumor in the greater omentum, invading the posterior wall of the uterus, without diffuse mesenteric thickening or multiple small nodules in the peritoneum. We performed en bloc resection of the mass, which involved omentectomy, hysterectomy, and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. Microscopically, the tumor cells were arranged in a tubulopapillary pattern lined by a single layer of uniform, cuboidal cells. A pattern of sclerotic stroma with irregular glandular elements was also recognized. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells showed strong positivity for calretinin. The final pathologic diagnosis was malignant mesothelioma. The patient did not receive chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and has remained in good health without any evidence of recurrence for almost 3 years since her operation.

In plain English

This article is a case report describing one patient with malignant mesothelioma that began in the greater omentum, a part of the abdomen. The patient was a 61-year-old Taiwanese woman who came to the hospital with lower back pain and weight loss. She had no history of asbestos exposure, and testing for simian virus 40 (SV40) was not done. At surgery, the surgeons found a large tumor arising from the greater omentum that had grown into the back wall of the uterus. No other tumor nodules were found in the peritoneum. The tumor weighed 448g and was removed together with the omentum, uterus and both ovaries. Microscope and staining tests confirmed malignant mesothelioma of the epithelial pattern. The cells were positive for calretinin, cytokeratin and epithelial membrane antigen. She received no further treatment, and 2 years 8 months after surgery there was no clinical or radiologic sign of recurrence. The authors stated that, to their knowledge, this was the second documented case of this tumor arising in the greater omentum.

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
• Who was studied: One 61-year-old Taiwanese woman with lower back pain and weight loss, treated by the authors' surgical department in Taiwan
• Exposure: No asbestos exposure was reported for this patient. Testing for simian virus 40 (SV40) was not done.
• Main results:
  • At surgery, the tumor arose from the greater omentum, was located in the pelvis and had invaded the back wall of the uterus. There was no mesenteric thickening and no spread of nodules in the peritoneum.
  • The tumor was removed in one piece together with the greater omentum, uterus and both ovaries.
  • The removed tumor weighed 448g.
  • Under the microscope, the tumor cells were arranged in a tubulopapillary pattern lined by a single layer of uniform, cuboidal cells. The cells showed the epithelial pattern.
  • On staining, the tumor cells were positive for calretinin, cytokeratin and epithelial membrane antigen (EMA). They were negative for S-100 protein, Leu-M1, CEA and placental alkaline phosphatase. The authors stated that this confirmed malignant mesothelioma.
  • The patient received no adjuvant therapy. She had needed no further treatment for 2 years 8 months after the operation, with no clinical or radiologic evidence of recurrence.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors stated that, to their knowledge, this was the second documented case of a solitary malignant mesothelioma arising in the greater omentum.

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: Mesothelioma, Omentum, Laparotomy, Peritoneum, Bilateral, Tubulopapillary, Calretinin, Chemotherapy.

Related studies

• Gray scale sonographic presentation of a mesothelioma of the greater omentum — J.M. Shah, D.L. King (1979)
• Combined adenomatoid tumor and well differentiated papillary mesothelioma of the omentum — Y. Hatano, Y. Hirose, et al. (2011)
• Neoplastic and inflammatory processes of the peritoneum, omentum, and mesentery: diagnosis with CT — J.E. Hamrick-Turner, M.V. Chiechi, et al. (1992)
• Asbestos in extrapulmonary sites: omentum and mesentery — R.F. Dodson, M.F. O'Sullivan, et al. (2000)
• Mesothelial proliferation due to asbestos and man-made fibres. Experimental studies on rat omentum — J. Friemann, K.M. Müller, et al. (1990)
• CT-guided core-needle biopsy in omental pathology — F. Pombo, E. Rodriguez, et al. (1997)

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