Subcutaneous metastasis of peritoneal mesothelioma diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration

Pathology Oncology Research. Vol 12, No 4, 247–250 [Link]

Lina PAPPA¹, Melpomeni MACHERA¹, Eleni TSANOU¹, Constantina DAMALA¹, Dimitrios PESCHOS²,
Maria BAFA¹, Vassiliki MALAMOU-MITSI¹

¹Department of Pathology-Cytology,

²Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece

Abstract

Mesothelioma is a rare malignant neoplasm of the serosal membranes, which can give distant metastases in various organs in advanced stages of its course. Subcutaneous tissue is an unusual metastatic site. In the literature, only one case of metastatic mesothelioma to the skin of the face has been reported. We present a case of a 60-year-old female with a prior history of peritoneal malignant mesothelioma, who 6 months after the initial diagnosis presented with a subcutaneous nodule in the lateral chest wall. Cytological examination of the material obtained by FNA from the nodule revealed metastatic mesothelioma. Although subcutaneous metastasis of malignant mesothelioma is a rare entity, one must always keep this possibility in mind and proceed to further investigation of such lesions. In these cases, FNA is a simple diagnostic procedure for the identification of metastatic disease in patients with a prior history of malignancy.