Published online Aug 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i16.3583
Peer-review started: February 18, 2020
First decision: July 4, 2020
Revised: July 6, 2020
Accepted: July 16, 2020
Article in press: July 16, 2020
Published online: August 26, 2020
Pulmonary tumorlets are nodular hyperplastic neuroendocrine cells (NECs) that extend beyond the basement membrane. They often coexist with other lung diseases such as fibrosis and bronchiectasis, but rarely accompanied by pulmonary sclerosing pneumocytoma (PSP), which has not been reported in the literature.
A 54-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because she had symptoms of bloody sputum for more than 4 mo and hemoptysis for 1 wk. Computed tomography images showed atrophy accompanied by infections in the middle lobe of her right lung. Moreover, numerous nodules were identified in the middle lobe of the right lung. The patient underwent thoracoscopic pneumonectomy of the middle lobe of the right lung, and the resected mass was pathologically confirmed to have bronchiectasis, multifocal NEC hyperplasia accompanied by tumorlet, and PSP.
Our report presents a rare clinical case of bronchiectasis complicated with multifocal NEC hyperplasia, tumorlet, and PSP.
Core tip: Pulmonary tumorlets are nodular hyperplastic neuroendocrine cells that extend beyond the basement membrane. They often coexist with other lung diseases such as fibrosis and bronchiectasis, but rarely accompanied by pulmonary sclerosing pneumocytoma. This paper reports a rare clinical case of bronchiectasis complicated with multifocal nodular hyperplastic neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia, tumorlet, and pulmonary sclerosing pneumocytoma. The patient was followed after computed tomography scanning and received surgical resection. We observed the progression of the tumor that has not yet been reported, which can be of great value in the diagnosis of the disease.