Appearance of mesothelioma cells in sputum. A case report

A case in which mesothelioma cells appeared in sputum is reported. There has been only one earlier reported case of the exfoliation of mesothelioma cells into sputum. A postmortem examination in our case disclosed a lepidic growth of mesothelioma cells along the alveolar wall of the lung, suggesting that this mode of spread in the lung was probably responsible for the shedding of tumor cells in sputum. Cytopathologists should be aware of this possibility in differentiating this entity from adenocarcinoma involving the pleura.