Cavitating Lung Mass

History: 65 year old male with chronic lymphocytic leukemia presents with cough and left sided chest pain. The differential for cavitating lung mass is wide, including neoplasms such as non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), lung metastases, lung abscess, mycobacterial pneumonia, fungal pneumonia, and septic pulmonary emboli. This patient underwent bronchoscopy which turned out to be…

radiologypics

January 19, 2013

1–2 minutes

chronic lymphocytic leukemia, health, left sided chest pain, medicine

History: 65 year old male with chronic lymphocytic leukemia presents with cough and left sided chest pain.

Fig 1: Single axial CT scan of the chest in lung windows shows a mass in the medial left upper lobe extending towards the left hilum. — **Lung mass:** Single axial CT scan of the chest in lung windows shows a mass in the medial left upper lobe extending towards the left hilum.

**Cavitary lung mass:** Two weeks later in the same patient, the same mass is seen, although now there is frank cavitation.

Fig 2: Two weeks later in the same patient, the same mass is seen, although now there is frank cavitation. — **Lung mass:** Single axial CT scan of the chest in lung windows shows a mass in the medial left upper lobe extending towards the left hilum.

**Cavitary lung mass:** Two weeks later in the same patient, the same mass is seen, although now there is frank cavitation.

The differential for cavitating lung mass is wide, including neoplasms such as non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), lung metastases, lung abscess, mycobacterial pneumonia, fungal pneumonia, and septic pulmonary emboli. This patient underwent bronchoscopy which turned out to be negative for infection. The final diagnosis was cavitary pulmonary lymphoma, which is a rare manifestation of lymphoma.

Read about the differential diagnosis of lung masses here!

3 responses to “Cavitating Lung Mass”

Lung Mass – Differential Diagnosis « RadiologyPics.com

February 18, 2013 at 10:03 pm

[…] and it commonly will have spiculated borders, a pleural tail, or thick walled cavitation. Read this post for a differential diagnosis for cavitating lung […]

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Pneumothorax | RadiologyPics.com

March 1, 2013 at 1:51 pm

[…] This is an iatrogenic pneumothorax in a patient status post lung biopsy. This patient had a cavitary lung mass. […]

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Cavitating Lung Mass Mnemonic – CAVITY | RADIOLOGYPICS.COM

March 11, 2013 at 10:21 pm

[…] Read a nice case of cavitating lung mass here. […]

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