Calcified lymph node metastases in bronchioloalveolar carcinoma

A 45-year-old man was found by cytopathologic examination of bronchial washings to have bronchioloalveolar carcinoma. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the chest showed diffuse calcifications in the consolidated left upper lobe. Similar calcifications were seen in several mediastinal lymph nodes; these were shown by biopsy to be metastases with calcified psammoma bodies. When CT demonstrates diffuse calcifications in a bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, the finding of identical calcifications in the mediastinal lymph nodes should raise a strong suspicion of metastatic involvement.