DOI: 10.12890/2025_005184
Aggressively quick: a case of negative radiographic evidence progressing to a large lobulated lung mass in six months
Authors
nizaralyassin1@gmail.com
Keywords
Lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, lung malignancy, volume doubling timeAbstract
We present the case of a 61-year-old male with a past medical history of diabetes, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, obesity hypoventilation syndrome, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), who developed a rapidly growing lung mass after previously having no radiographic evidence of cancer 6 months earlier. The patient initially presented for what appeared to be a COPD exacerbation, and imaging at that time showed no sign of any lung mass. Six months later, the patient returned with dyspnea and was found to have a large lobulated lung mass, possibly extending into the mediastinum. Lung malignancies include small cell carcinomas and non-small cell carcinomas. In this case, the patient developed an indeterminate differentiation of a non-small cell carcinoma, which rapidly progressed from negative radiographic findings to a 9.7 cm mass at its largest dimension within 6 months.
References
- US Preventive Services Task Force; Krist AH, Davidson KW, Mangione CM, Barry MJ, Cabana M, et al. Screening for Lung Cancer: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement. JAMA 2021;325:962-970.
- Collins LG, Haines C, Perkel R, Enck RE. Lung cancer: diagnosis and management. Am Fam Physician 2007;75:56-63.
- de Sousa VML, Carvalho L. Heterogeneity in Lung Cancer. Pathobiology. 2018;85:96-107.
- Hasegawa M, Sone S, Takashima S, Li F, Yang ZG, Maruyama Y, et al. Growth rate of small lung cancers detected on mass CT screening. Br J Radiol 2000;73:1252-1259.
- Mazzone PJ, Silvestri GA, Souter LH, Caverly TJ, Kanne JP, Katki HA, et al. Screening for Lung Cancer: CHEST Guideline and Expert Panel Report. Chest 2021;160:e427-e494.
- Lu Y, Sun Z, Li H, Chen X, Li Y, Sun L, et al. Radiological evidence of rapid growth acceleration of a small part solid nodule found to be large-cell carcinoma of the lung. J Cardiothorac Surg 2023;18:236.
- Buium C, Negru S, Ionescu DN, Dediu M. The Unmet Diagnostic and Treatment Needs in Large Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Lung. Curr Oncol 2023;30:7218-7228.
- Warth A, Muley T, Herpel E, Meister M, Herth FJ, Schirmacher P, et al. Large-scale comparative analyses of immunomarkers for diagnostic subtyping of non-small-cell lung cancer biopsies. Histopathology 2012;61:1017-1025.
- Kriegsmann K, Cremer M, Zgorzelski C, Harms A, Muley T, Winter H, et al. Agreement of CK5/6, p40, and p63 immunoreactivity in non-small cell lung cancer. Pathology 2019;51:240-245.
- Kriegsmann K, Zgorzelski C, Muley T, Christopoulos P, Thomas M, Winter H, et al. Role of Synaptophysin, Chromogranin and CD56 in adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the lung lacking morphological features of neuroendocrine differentiation: a retrospective large-scale study on 1170 tissue samples. BMC Cancer 2021;21:486.