Unusual abdominal tumor: peritoneal mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Unusual abdominal tumor: peritoneal mesothelioma, by P.Y. Su, Y.Y. Chen, H.H. Yen (Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 2011).

The study

• Authors: P.Y. Su, Y.Y. Chen, H.H. Yen
• Journal: Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology
• Published: 2011;9(7):e68
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This was a brief case report, published as an "Image of the Month," by doctors at hospitals in Taiwan. It described one patient. A 66-year-old woman went to an emergency department with a dry cough for 1 month and low-grade fever for 2 weeks, and a mass could be felt in her upper abdomen. A CT scan showed a large mass, about 10 by 10 cm, in the left upper abdomen. Blood tests for three tumor markers were within normal range. Surgery was suggested, but she chose herbal therapy instead. Three months later, a repeat CT scan showed the mass had grown and was bleeding inside. She then had exploratory abdominal surgery. The tumor was diagnosed as peritoneal mesothelioma of a mixed sarcomatoid and epithelioid type, involving the liver, stomach and spleen. The report did not say whether she had ever been exposed to asbestos, and it did not describe what happened to her after diagnosis. In a short background section citing other published work, the authors named asbestos exposure as the main risk factor for peritoneal mesothelioma.

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, published as an 'Image of the Month')
• Who was studied: one 66-year-old woman seen at an emergency department; authors based at hospitals in Taiwan
• Exposure: Not reported for this patient; asbestos is mentioned only in the general background, which cites other studies
• Main results:
  • The patient had a dry cough for 1 month and low-grade fever for 2 weeks before coming to hospital
  • Abdominal CT showed a large mass, about 10 by 10 cm, in the left upper abdomen
  • Blood tests for alpha-fetoprotein, carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 were within normal range
  • Surgical removal was suggested, but the patient chose herbal therapy
  • A follow-up CT three months later showed the mass had grown and had bleeding inside it
  • After exploratory surgery, the tumor was diagnosed as mixed sarcomatoid and epithelioid mesothelioma
  • The peritoneal mesothelioma involved the liver, stomach and spleen

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: Peritoneal Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Loss of BAP1 expression is very rare in peritoneal and gynecologic serous adenocarcinomas and can be useful in the differential diagnosis with abdominal mesothelioma — J. Andrici, J. Jung, et al. (2016)
• "Signet-ring" cells--a caveat in the diagnosis of a diffuse peritoneal mesothelioma occurring in a lady presenting with recurrent ascites: an unusual case report — B. Rekhi, S. Pathuthara, et al. (2010)
• Multiple cystic tumors throughout the abdominal and pelvic cavity — S.C. Yu, C.H. Wu, et al. (2012)
• Multi-institutional experience of diffuse intra-abdominal multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma — T.C. Chua, T.D. Yan, et al. (2011)
• Intra-abdominal benign multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma — I. Jouvin, A. Dohan, et al. (2014)
• Colon cancers and peritoneal mesothelioma occurring 29 years after abdominal radiation for testicular seminoma. A case report and review of the literature — D. Tassile, A.D. Roth, et al. (1998)

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