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Vol.59 No.5 contents | Japanese/English |
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- Case Report -
A Case of Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma That Regressed Spontaneously
Yoko Tanaka1, Yuka Nagata1, Mai Fujinami1, Kentaro Tago1, Yoshimi Takeshima1, Yoshiaki Sasaki11Department of Internal Medicine, Japan Community Health Care Organization Osaka Hospital, Japan
Background. Spontaneous regression of cancer is rare. There are some reports of the spontaneous regression of lung cancer, possibly due to immunological mechanisms, but the causes of spontaneous regression remain unclear. Case. A man in his 80s underwent endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) at the department of gastrointestinal medicine of our hospital in May 2013. Follow-up chest computed tomography revealed a growing nodular shadow in his left upper lobe, and he was referred to our department in December 2014. The patient refused to undergo bronchoscopy, and the nodular shadow grew with his serum CEA level increasing. He was eventually persuaded to undergo bronchoscopy. The lesion was diagnosed as poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. He refused to be treated because of his old age, and fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) demonstrated an uptake in not only the nodular shadow but also the mediastinal and supraclavicular lymph nodes. However, his nodular lesion regressed and serum CEA levels decreased without treatment. A reduced uptake in the nodular lesion and lymph nodes was observed on FDG-PET. He neither changed his lifestyle nor took any new drugs or supplements during this period. However, he showed regrowth of the lung cancer three and a half years after the spontaneous regression. Conclusion. We encountered a case of the spontaneous regression of pulmonary adenocarcinoma. As such cases are rare, we report the details and a literature review.
key words: Pulmonary adenocarcinoma, Non-small cell lung cancer, Spontaneous regression
Received: March 21, 2019
Accepted: July 10, 2019
JJLC 59 (5): 476-481, 2019
