Radiological and Pathological Findings of Metastatic Cancer Presenting Infiltrative Shadows

Abstract

Chest X-ray findings of ten cases with pulmonary metastases presenting infiltrative shadows on chest X-ray film were studied by comparing them histopathologically. The chest X-ray findings showed two different patterns: one was pneumonia-like consolidation and the other was diffuse small nodules with ill-defined margins.
Histological findings of six cases showing inhomogeneous infiltration and bronchogenic spread were similar to the architecture of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma. On the other hand, four cases showed diffuse and simultaneous dissemination of small nodular lesions with an ill-defined margin on chest X-ray film. They appeared a infiltrative shadows because of fibrotic changes around the metastatic foci and desquamation of cancer cells into alveolar spaces.
The radiological and pathological findings in the ten cases with infiltrative metastases were extremely similar to those of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma which we already reported.