Pulmonary inflammatory pseudotumor with rapid growth and serum carcinoembryonic antigen elevation

Inflammatory pseudotumors consist of chronic inflammatory cells, predominantly plasma cells. We report a rare case of pulmonary inflammatory pseudotumor associated with rapid growth and elevated serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). A 75-year-old man referred for bloody sputum was found in chest computed tomography (CT) to have a round circumscribed tumor with a cavity located in the periphery of the right lower pulmonary lobe. Cytological examination of a biopsy specimen obtained by CT-guided transthoracic fine needle aspiration showed no malignancy. Two months later, the tumor had noticeably grown, accompanied by a notable rise in serum CEA. We conducted right lower pulmonary lobectomy with regional lymph node dissection, since malignancy could not be ruled out by frozen-section examination. Histological examination of the resected specimen showed an inflammatory pseudotumor with CEA production.