Solitary Choriocarcinoma in the Lung

An unusual case of primary choriocarcinoma of the lung

“…Other reports support a hypothesis of dedifferentiation or metaplasia of nongonadal tissue such as primary lung cancer to trophoblast [1-3]. …”

“…Choriocarcinoma is a malignant proliferation of the Langerhans cell and of syncytial cells of trophoblastic origin that is normally situated in the female genital tract after a gestational event such as molar pregnancy, term pregnancy, abortion, or ectopic pregnancy [1,2]. …”

“…The prognosis of extragonadal choriocarcinoma is usually poor, with various symptoms seriously affecting quality of life. Actually, resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy appears to represent the best treatment for PCC of the lung [3]…”

“…Thus a standard lower left lobectomy was attended. Surprisingly, the histological results diagnosed the tumor to be a choriocarcinoma [1,2]. In the present case, PCC of the lung was diagnosed after operation on the basis of the following observations: hCG fell dramatically after lobectomy: the lesion was limited to the lung, the patient's clinical course after surgery was uneventful, the ovaries, uterus and uterine tubes were found to be free of lesions on surgical removal, and no lesions were found in the digestive system.…”

“…Primary choriocarcinoma (PCC) of the lung is extremely uncommon. The prognosis of this tumor is extremely poor, despite surgical and chemotherapeutic treatment [1-3]. We report a surgically treated case of choriocarcinoma in a 37-year-old woman who came to our attention because of a isolated lung lesion.…”