[Pulmonary and pleural metastasis of a malignant granular cell tumor]

A 72-year-old woman, who suffered from increasing dyspnea and productive cough was admitted to hospital. Clinical examination revealed a reduced respiratory sounds over the left lung and a painless and unmovable tumor in the area of the left hip.

Apart from hypoxemia (pO2 7.81 kPa) the laboratory values did not indicate any pathological findings. The X-ray and CT-scan of the chest showed a few spotty shadows and pleura effusion on the left. No tumor cells were detected in the pleural effusion. In biopsies of the visceral and parietal pleura as well as biopsy within the tumor in the area of the left hip there were clusters of tumor cells of a granular cell tumor.

Because the same tumor cell type was detected in the visceral and parietal pleura and wihtin the tumor at the left gluteus area, we diagnosed a malignant granular cell tumor. The CT-scan was suspicious of lung metastasis. The primary tumor was located in the area of left hip. The patient was in a poor general condition and she suffered from an extensive metastastic disease; curative treatment was not possible. A pleurodesis was performed. The patient died nine months after initial diagnosis.

A rare malignant granular cell tumor was discovered by detecting tumor tissue of granular cell tumor in the pleura and within a tumor in the left gluteus area. Another indication of a metastatic disease were multifocal lesions in the lung detected by CT-scan. Curative treatment was not possible.