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Vol.44 No.1 contents | Japanese/English |
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- Case Report -
A Small Cell Lung Cancer With Cancer-associated Retinopathy: Detection of the Primary Site in the Lung 15 Months After Resection of Metastatic Mediastinal Lymphadenopathy
Akira Yamaguchi1, Tami Fujimoto2, Osamu Hashimoto1, Shiro Katagiri2,3Department of 1Thoracic Surgery, 2Internal Medicine, Chiba Tokusyukai Hospital, Japan, 3Katagiri Clinic, Japan
Background. Cancer-associated retinopathy and metastatic thoracic lymphadenopathy of unknown origin are rare phenomena in lung cancer. A patient with cancer-associated retinopathy (CAR) from small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is described. Case. A 67-year-old woman presented with mediastinal lymphadenopathy and had visual disturbance of sudden onset. The mediastinal nodes, removed under thoracotomy, pathologically showed oat cell type small cell carcinoma. No primary tumor was found despite a thorough workup. Although anti-CAR antigen antibody was not detected, CAR was diagnosed according to multiple clinical examinations. A primary SCLC was detected in the right lower lobe 15 months after resection of the mediastinal nodes. Conclusion. This case demonstrates that undetectably small tumors can produce a large mass by lymph node metastasis and cause CAR.
key words: Cancer-associated retinopathy (CAR), Small cell lung cancer (SCLC), Paraneoplastic syndrome (PNS), Retinal autoantibodies
Received: October 3, 2003
Accepted: December 5, 2003
JJLC 44 (1): 43-48, 2004
