Primary choriocarcinoma of the lung

Abstract

The prognosis of primary angiosarcoma of the pulmonary system is generally poor, irrespective of whether the location is in the pulmonary parenchyma or the main airway. Angiosarcoma of the pulmonary parenchyma is invariably fatal within months because metastases are usually present at the time of detection, and chemotherapy thus far has not proved effective. The clinical course of solitary angiosarcoma of the main airway is also dismal in previous reports. 2,4 However, mortality of these patients was mainly caused by massive and intractable hemoptysis of the small resectable tumor rather than by the invasiveness of the disease. From the experience of successful treatment of this patient, angiosarcoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a primary tracheal tumor. Furthermore, prompt surgical intervention with adequate resection margins is recommended in the management of these patients when the disease is localized at detection. References

Peripartum Respiratory Failure with Bilateral Pulmonary Infiltrates on Chest X-Ray

“…Recurrent hemoptysis seems to be the most frequent symptom in pulmonary choriocarcinoma, which is often associated with chest pain and persistent cough [4], with distal metastases commonly present in the brain, vagina, and kidneys. There are 3 main types of pulmonary choriocarcinoma that are caused by hematogenous metastases [5, 6].…”

Pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma producing hCG

“…WHO classification of the lung has not described primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma, 1 and the entity of primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma has been controversial. Although choriocarcinoma most commonly occurs in the female genital tract, 19 primary lung choriocarcinoma has been reported 20–29 . As histological characteristics of choriocarcinoma, dual types of the neoplastic cells are described: (i) giant multinucleated cells with ill‐defined borders, pleomorphic nuclei, and an abundant cytoplasm (syncytiotrophoblastic cells); and (ii) small cells with distinct borders and clear cytoplasm (cytotrophoblastic cells) 19 .…”

Primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma combined with adenocarcinoma

“…Our review of the literature found 23 cases reported as primary lung chorioepithelioma 17,18 or choriocarcinoma. 20,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] We also found four additional cases of primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma, although they have been described as hCG-positive large cell carcinoma or anaplastic carcinoma. 19,21 Therefore, we believe that the total number of previously reported cases of primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma is 27 cases, which is composed of 20 cases of pure-type choriocarcinoma with no other carcinomatous components and seven cases with other accompanying carcinomatous components.…”

“…Most cases arise in the midline structures with male predominance, and often coexist with other germ‐cell tumor components 1,2 . However, non‐gestational choriocarcinoma infrequently involves non‐midline lesions with no other germ‐cell tumor components 3–46 . Primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma is an extremely rare neoplasm representing such tumors 17–39 .…”