Solitary capillary hemangioma of the lung is an extremely rare entity that can present as a solitary pulmonary nodule mimicking early lung cancer, requiring pathological awareness for accurate differential diagnosis.
It has long been recognized that tumors of capillary vessels in the lung are extremely rare. While pulmonary capillary hemangiomatosis, which is a rare cause of pulmonary hypertension, is relatively well known, there have been only a few reports of solitary capillary hemangioma (SCH) of the lung. Herein we report two cases of SCH. Both cases were first detected as a solitary nodule of the lung in chest computed tomography images. Both lesions were recognized as early lung cancer and surgical resections were performed. At low power view, one was not encapsulated but was well delineated from the non-neoplastic lung and the other was pseudo-capsulated. Both tumors consisted of uniform capillaries with cuboidal or flattened endothelial cells. There was no cytologic atypia. Endothelial cells were highlighted by CD31 stain. Awareness of this entity is important for pathologists for differential diagnosis of a solitary pulmonary nodule.
Lee et al. (Sun,) studied this question.