Pulmonary inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor in an AIDS patient

Pulmonary inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (PIMT) is a rare disease that occurs more frequently in younger patients. Its etiopathogeny remains debated whether this is an inflammatory lesion characterized by uncontrolled cell growth or a true neoplasm.

To present a case of PIMT in a young men, HIV-positive since childhood. Patient, Methods and Results: We report the case of an HIV-positive patient, aged 21 years, with collapsed immunity (CD4=23 cells/mm3), which in the second half of 2009 was clinically and radiologically diagnosed with recurrent right pneumonia. Serological tests were negative for Mycoplasma, Epstein-Barr and HHV-8 and positive for cytomegalovirus (CMV). Further monitoring of this episode raises imaging suspicion of the tumor in right upper pulmonary lobe. A lung wedge biopsy by thoracotomy was performed. The result of histopathological examination was suggestive for Kaposi sarcoma but required an immunohistochemical examination (vimentin, smooth muscle actin, CD34, anaplastic lymphoma kinase, CK7, L26/CD20, CD38, CD68), which established diagnosis of PIMT. In our case, we noticed a favorable evolution under antiretroviral treatment (by increasing CD4 count - immunity slowly improved), broad-spectrum antibiotics, and steroidal anti-inflammatory treatment, with regression of PIMT over eight months.

Although inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) is rare, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of pulmonary tumoral lesions in young adults. This is the first PIMT case in an HIV-positive patient described in Romania. Even good response in such cases was noticed after surgical treatment, in our case we achieved complete remission of the disease with anti-inflammatory steroidal therapy and combined antiretroviral therapy (cART). As other infectious etiologies, CMV also could represent a trigger for developing a pulmonary inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor.