2010 Volume 24 Issue 6 Pages 940-944
A 71-year-old man presented 6 years previously with a slowly developing mass on the right side of his chest. He had been diagnosed with von Recklinghausen's disease in infancy due to multiple skin nodules and chloasma. During follow-up at another clinic, a 2-cm ground-glass opacity in the right lung was detected on CT. A further CT performed in March 2009 revealed the size and extent of the opacity to be increasing, and the patient was referred to our department with suspected lung adenocarcinoma. Resection of the chest wall tumor was performed under general anesthesia, and histopathological analysis revealed no malignancy. The patient was diagnosed with primary lung adenocarcinoma based on bronchoscopy and biopsy findings from the right lung lesion. Thoracoscopic right lower lobectomy and systematic mediastinal lymph node dissection were subsequently performed. Macroscopic observation of the resected lung sample revealed marked emphysematous changes in addition to a 2.1×1.5-cm white tumor exhibiting coal dust accumulation. The tumor was histopathologically classified as lung adenocarcinoma, pT1b, pN0, pStage I A. The postoperative course was generally favorable, and no signs of relapse have been observed to date.
