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December 6, 2025Open Access

Small cell lung cancer invading the pulmonary artery misdiagnosed as pulmonary thromboembolism: a case report

Key Points

Initial misdiagnosis of pulmonary thromboembolism led to anticoagulation therapy without improvement.
Subsequent imaging with positron emission tomography-computed tomography revealed malignancy-related hypermetabolic lesions.
Diagnosis was confirmed by biopsy following imaging, underscoring the need for accurate differential diagnosis.
Clinical management of pulmonary artery invasion by tumor necessitates timely histopathological confirmation and advanced imaging techniques.

Abstract

We report a case of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) invading the pulmonary artery, initially misdiagnosed as pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE). The patient received anticoagulation therapy for 3 months without improvement. Subsequent positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) revealed hypermetabolic lesions suspicious for malignancy, and bronchoscopy with biopsy confirmed SCLC. This case highlights the diagnostic challenge of distinguishing pulmonary artery invasion by tumor from PTE, and underscores the critical role of PET-CT and timely histopathological confirmation in guiding clinical management.

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Cite This Study

Yuan et al. (Sat,) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/694020fd2d562116f28fb5ff https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1186/s13019-025-03725-y

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