Common presentation with uncommon diagnosis : multifocal epithelioid hemangioendothelioma

Abstract EN

A young female patient presenting with recurrent hemoptysis, neck swelling, and mediastinal mass mimicking lymphadenopathy was admitted to the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research and SSKM hospital, Kolkata, India.

Clinical features, radiological studies, fibre optic bronchoscopy, and fine needle aspiration cytology from the neck swelling created a diagnostic dilemma until surgical resection and immunohistochemistry reports confirmed the diagnosis of multifocal epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, a rare vascular tumor with intermediate malignancy potential.

Because it is a slow-progressing disease and due to the non-availability of standard chemotherapy, the patient, and her legal guardian, opted for palliative care only.

She was asymptomatic for four years but again presented with hemoptysis, reappearance of the neck swelling on the same side, and a mediastinal mass compressing the superior vena cava and right pulmonary artery.

This report describes the diagnostic problems and therapeutic challenges in the management of this rare tumor over a four-year follow-up period.

The clinical course emphasizes the highly unpredictable nature of this tumor.