Abstract
An analysis was conducted of the clinical, morphological, and immunohistochemical challenges in the diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma, based on a rare clinical case. The basis for clinical consideration was a case of pleural mesothelioma in a 19-year-old patient. The clinical examination included physical examination, computed tomography (CT) of the chest, abdominal ultrasound, bronchoscopy, and general clinical laboratory tests. Treatment included surgical intervention consisting of subtotal resection of the pericardium with the tumor and left upper lobectomy, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Therapeutic and diagnostic thoracotomy was performed due to suspicion of a soft-tissue sarcoma of the right mediastinum. The intraoperative macroscopic appearance was more consistent with pleural mesothelioma. The tumor was removed with resection of the pericardium and left upper lobectomy. Morphological examination of the surgical specimen showed a histological pattern consistent with epithelioid-type mesothelioma, G2, with infiltration into the lung lobe and part of the pericardium. Immunohistochemical examination of the paraffin-embedded tissue block using TTF-1 and CK7 antibodies demonstrated positive expression for both markers.
Keywords
Full Text
Download Article as PDF
Full article in PDF format
References
- Febres-Aldana CA, Fanaroff R, Offin M, et al. Diffuse pleural mesothelioma: advances in molecular pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment. Annu Rev Pathol. 2024;19:11-42.
- Lazarev AF, Grigoruk OG, Bazulina LM, Muzalevskiy PN, Kravtsov VYu. Mezotelioma plevry: etiologiya, zabolevaemost, diagnostika, lechenie, vyzhivaemost [Pleural mesothelioma: etiology, incidence, diagnosis, treatment, survival]. Rossiyskiy onkologicheskiy zhurnal – Russian Journal of Oncology. 2013;18(5):15-20. (In Russ.)
- Rozitis E, Johnson BJ, Cheng YY, Lee KL. The use of immunohistochemistry, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and emerging epigenetic markers in the diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM): a review. Front Oncol. 2020;10:1742.
- Chirieac LR, Gill R, Attanoos RL, et al. The genetics of cancer heterogeneity and mesothelioma. Front Oncol. 2026;16:1744382.
- Roof L, Koehler K, Verschraegen C. Clinical importance of molecular biomarkers in pleural mesothelioma. Cancers (Basel). 2026;18(4):679.
- Update on pleural epithelioid mesothelioma: new insights for diagnosis and patient management. J Thorac Oncol. 2026;103720.
- Stepchenkov RP. Miksoidnyy variant sarkomatoznoy mezoteliomy plevry [Myxoid variant of sarcomatoid pleural mesothelioma]. Zhurnal spravochnik vracha obshchey praktiki – Journal Guide for General Practitioner. 2020;(12):69-75. (In Russ.)
- Hwang HC, Sheffield BS, Rodriguez S, et al. Clinical and molecular validation of BAP1, MTAP, P53, and Merlin immunohistochemistry in diagnosis of pleural mesothelioma. Mod Pathol. 2022;35(8):1071-1081.
- Drevet G, Kalson L, Mangé L, et al. Moving beyond morphology: toward a morpho-molecular classification of pleural mesothelioma. J Thorac Oncol. 2026;103551.
- Xu D, Yang H, Schmid RA, Peng RW. Therapeutic landscape of malignant pleural mesothelioma: collateral vulnerabilities and evolutionary dependencies in the spotlight. Front Oncol. 2020;10:579464.
- Determinants of response to immune checkpoint blockade in pleural mesothelioma: molecular, immunological, and clinical perspectives. Curr Oncol Rep. 2025.
- Yang H, Xu D, Schmid RA, Peng RW. Biomarker-guided targeted and immunotherapies in malignant pleural mesothelioma. Ther Adv Med Oncol. 2020;12:1758835920971421.