A Case of an Intrathoracic Foreign Body Resembling a Metastatic Lung Tumor

Abstract

An 80-year-old woman who had undergone low anterior rectal resection for rectal cancer in 2008 and total aortic arch replacement in April 2018 was detected to have a small lung subpleural nodule in a regular follow-up CT scan. FDG-PET did not show abnormal uptake of FDG in the nodule and it was less than 1 cm in diameter. We thus decided to follow the tumor and 2 months later we found the tumor persisted. For the purpose of diagnosis and local control, surgical resection was performed by video-assisted thoracoscopy in November 2018. The nodule was hard, brittle, white, and was covered by thin inflammatory tissue. Pathological examination revealed the nodule to be a foreign body. The nodule closely resembled bonewax material on inspection, which might have been stayed at the previous cardiovascular surgery.

We report a case of intrathoracic foreign body resembling metastatic lung tumor.