Pleuropulmonary blastoma: a case report

Pleuropulmonary blastoma is rare embryonal tumor of infancy and early childhood and it often arises from lung and more rarely from the parietal pleura. We present this entity which has no systematic data associated with its incidence in order to discuss clinical, histopathological, immunohistochemical features and the differential diagnosis. A three-year-old boy presented with fever showed signs of upper respiratory tract infection. Radiological examination revealed a solid mass filling the right hemithorax. The patient underwent core needle biopsy, wedge biopsy and lobectomy. Biopsy and surgical material were examined histopathologically. The tumor was composed of predominantly solid areas consisting blastemal cells with spindle, polygonal and round nuclei in the myxoid stroma. Immunohistochemical staining of the tumor cells were positive with vimentin and desmin. MIB-1 labeling index was above 90%. Histological diagnosis was pleuropulmonary blastoma type 3. The surgically sampled adjacent diafragma was also infiltrated with the tumor. The patient was treated with chemotherapy and showed no signs of recurrence in the follow-up of 9 months. Pleuropulmonary blastoma is a very rare childhood cancer that needs to be kept in mind in the pathological differential diagnosis of thoracic tumors in the children.