Key result
A 55-year-old woman with a history of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma presented with progressive dyspnea and was found to have multiple thin-walled cavitary lung lesions on CT scan.
Case Report (n=1)
Case report describing multiple cystic and cavitary lung lesions in a patient with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
Cavitary lesions warrant inclusion in the differential for dyspnea in head and neck cancer; extends reported CT manifestations but leaves open diagnostic specificity.
A 55 year old woman presented with progressive dyspnea and a new right-sided pleural effusion on chest radiograph. She had been diagnosed with invasive keratinized squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the head and neck 5 months before presentation. She was treated with local resection with reconstruction and radiotherapy. Lymph nodes were positive for metastatic cancer but no evidence of distance metastases was found. On presentation, the patient was febrile and tachycardic. She required mechanical ventilation for progressive hypoxemia. Computed tomography (CT) scan of chest showed a right pleural effusion, pleural thickening, and multiple thin-walled cavitary lung lesions (Figure1 and 2).
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A 2007 study conducted a case report in Multiple cystic and cavitary lung lesions (n=1). A 55-year-old woman with a history of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma presented with progressive dyspnea and was found to have multiple thin-walled cavitary lung lesions on CT scan.
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