Sarcomatous mesothelioma of the pleura with cerebral metastases

Our plain-English summary of Sarcomatous mesothelioma of the pleura with cerebral metastases, by C. Nielsen, I.M. Hansen (The Medical Journal of Australia, 1990).

The study

• Authors: C. Nielsen, I.M. Hansen
• Journal: The Medical Journal of Australia
• Published: 1990;153(10):625-6
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 6 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

A case of sarcomatous pleural mesothelioma in a 22-year-old woman is presented. There was no history of occupational exposure to asbestos. Twenty months after the first symptoms occurred the patient noticed weakness in the right arm. A computed tomography scan of the brain showed multiple metastases. The patient died 10 days later.

In plain English

This case report, by doctors at Aalborg Hospital in Denmark, described one patient: a previously healthy 22-year-old woman, a nurses' aide, with no occupational exposure to asbestos. She was admitted to hospital in June 1987 after six months of worsening cough with purulent sputum and a 3 kg weight loss over two months. A chest X-ray showed numerous rounded shadows in both lungs. A CT scan showed a 6 x 6 x 8 cm tumour on the right side of the mediastinum (the central chest). Early biopsies did not give a diagnosis, and one needle biopsy suggested non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. During open chest surgery the tumour was removed. Biopsies showed malignant mesothelioma of the sarcomatous type, which the authors reported as mesothelioma of the pleura. Twenty months after her first symptoms she developed weakness of the right arm, and a CT scan showed numerous brain metastases. She died 10 days later, and no autopsy was done. The authors suggested that her relatively long survival may be why the brain metastases became noticeable. A single case does not show how often this happens.

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 patient: a previously healthy 22-year-old female nurses' aide, admitted to hospital in June 1987; the authors were at Aalborg Hospital, Denmark
• Exposure: The patient had no occupational exposure to asbestos; no fiber types, products or doses are described
• Main results:
  • Before admission the patient had six months of increasingly severe cough with purulent sputum and a 3 kg weight loss in the last two months
  • A CT scan of the thorax showed a 6 x 6 x 8 cm tumour on the right side of the mediastinum and numerous rounded infiltrations in both lungs
  • A needle biopsy of the mediastinal tumour showed only a few cells, which indicated changes consistent with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
  • After thoracotomy, with removal of the mediastinal tumour and lung biopsies, microscopic examination showed malignant mesothelioma of sarcomatous type
  • Twenty months after the first symptoms the patient developed paresis (weakness) of the right arm, and a CT scan showed numerous brain metastases
  • The patient died 10 days after the brain CT scan; no autopsy was performed
• The authors' conclusion: The authors suggested that the patient's relatively long survival time may be the reason the cerebral metastases became clinically evident

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma, Pleura, Pleural Mesothelioma, Occupational Exposure.

Related studies

• Presentation of malignant pleural mesothelioma with cerebral metastases — W.M. McNaughton, M.E. Broughton, et al. (1990)
• Malignant mesothelioma with brain metastases — J.A. Kaye, A.M. Wang, et al. (1986)
• Response to chemotherapy of brain metastases from malignant pleural mesothelioma — M. Colleoni, G. Liessi, et al. (1996)
• Malignant mesothelioma and central nervous system metastases. Report of two cases, pooled analysis, and systematic review — A.C. Miller, M. Miettinen, et al. (2014)
• Brain metastases in malignant pleural mesothelioma. Case report and review of the literature — K.S. Sridhar, A.M. Hussein, et al. (1989)
• Brain metastases in malignant pleural mesothelioma — T. Yamagishi, N. Fujimoto, et al. (2016)

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