The prognosis of lung cancer remains poor with overall five year survival figures varying between five and 10% worldwide, However, it has been shown that surgery in patients with early stage disease in non-small cell lung cancer can achieve five year survival rates up to 80%, suggesting that early or delay diagnosis can influence prognosis. Nevertheless, studies addressing this have been inconclusive and mostly derived from Western countries.
A 10-month-old boy was referred for tachypnea and heart murmur. An echocardiogram showed unexplained left heart dilation without evidence of an intracardiac shunt. A 64-slice computed tomographic contrast-enhanced angiography showed a large tortuous anomalous artery arising from the descending thoracic aorta and supplying the lower lobe of the left lung. The venous return into the left atrium was normal. The affected lobe had normal lung parenchyma, and its bronchial tree was connected normally with the left main bronchus. Hence, it was not a sequestrated lobe. The boy underwent surgical lobectomy of the left lower lobe and improved. Anomalous arterial supply of a lobe without sequestration of its bronchial tree is a rare pathologic entity. It also is a very rare cause of congestive heart failure in children. Computed tomographic angiography was a useful tool for evaluation of the intrathoracic anomalous vessel in this case.
An eight-week-old infant presented with dyspnoea two months after an uneventful normal vaginal delivery. Radiologically, a sharply outlined radiolucent area surrounded by atelectasis was seen in the upper lobe of the left lung. A left upper lobectomy was performed with the clinical impression of congenital pulmonary emphysema. The resected specimen displayed multiple cysts 2 to 6 mm in diameter. Microscopically, intracystic papillary mesenchymal ingrowths lined by respiratory epithelium were present. Based on both the gross and microscopical features, a diagnosis of Fisher's variant of type II congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation (CAM) was made. The postoperative follow-up showed excellent recovery and normal development of the child.
Patients with multiple malignant primary tumours are often described, based on their chronology of presentation, as simultaneous, synchronous or metachronous tumours. Lung malignancies presenting in association with head and neck tumours are well documented while there have been small series of thyroid synchronous cancers presenting with laryngeal lesions in literature. No cases, to our knowledge, have been reported in literature of a single patient with all three laryngeal, lung and thyroid malignancies. We report one such case of a 71-year-old Chinese man who had undergone a total laryngectomy for a recurrent cancer of the larynx only to be found to have tumours of the lung and thyroid in the post-operative period and he eventually died of post-operative complications. We also discuss screening for lung and thyroid malignancies in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).
Invasive aspergillosis predominantly occurs in immunocompromised patients and is often resistant to different therapeutically strategies. However, mortality significantly increases if the central nervous system is affected. In this report we describe two cases of invasive aspergilosis, one with kidney involvement with a successful treatment while the other with pulmonary and cerebral involvement with a grave outcome.