Synchronous Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor in Lung and Brain: A Case Report and Review of Literature

Treatment modalities of ALK-positive relapsed/refractory inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor of the brain and lungs in 7-year-old girl: case-based reviews

PURPOSE

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) belongs to mesenchymal neoplasm of intermediate malignancy in WHO classification. Primary CNS disease or CNS metastases (CNS-IMT) occur in minority. We describe a case of relapsed/refractory IMT of lungs with multiple brain metastases in young child who achieved long-term complete response after alectinib. This systematic review also summarizes treatment modalities and outcome of children and adolescent with CNS-IMT.

METHODS

PRISMA 2020 guideline was applied to select an article from PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane databases without time limits. This review focused on children and adolescent 0-24 years of age with CNS-IMT or inflammatory pseudotumor (CNS-IPT). The clinical characteristics and treatment outcome were explored.

RESULTS

A total of 51 patients in 49 publications were identified. Median age of patients with CNS-IMT/IPT was 15-year-old and 60.8% were male. The most common location of tumor was cerebral cortex (54.9%). Complete resection of CNS-IMT/IPT was performed in 27 cases with 100% complete response and 18.5% recurrence. Nearly half of patients who received partial resection without adjuvant therapy experienced progressive disease, while the contrast group totally achieved partial response. Overall responses in 7 patients treating with ALK inhibitors were 57.1% durable complete response and 42.9% transient partial response.

CONCLUSION

First-line treatment of CNS-IMT/IPT is complete resection. Patients who received partial tumor removal might have benefit from adjuvant therapy. ALK inhibitors reveal a promising result in unresectable CNS-IMT/IPT. Our case has shown a success in treating relapsed and refractory CNS-IMT as well as the primary site using 2nd-generation ALK inhibitor.

Multiple pulmonary myofibromas mimicking metastatic disease in an adult patient

We report a case of multiple bilateral pulmonary myofibromas in an asymptomatic 76-year-old man, who was referred to our institution for investiagtion of incidentally discovered pulmonary nodules, orginially suspected to represent pulmonary metastases. Myofibromas are unusual benign neoplasms, infrequent in adults, and rarely affecting the lungs. Pulmonary neurofibromas can mimic lung metastases and their diagnosis requires histopathological assessment.

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumours of the thorax: Radiologic and clinicopathological correlation

CONTEXT AND AIMS

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumour (IMT) is a rare mesenchymal neoplasm with intermediate malignant potential. The aim of this study is to describe and compare the clinical presentation, computed tomography (CT) findings and anaplastic lymphoma kinase -1 (ALK-1) expression of IMT of the thorax in children and adults. We also sought to study the tumour behaviour after treatment on the follow-up imaging.

MATERIALS AND METHOD

This is a retrospective observational study of 22 histopathologically proven cases of IMT in the thorax. The clinical parameters, CT findings, biopsy results, treatment received and follow-up were recorded. Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher's exact test.

RESULTS

IMT of the thorax had diverse imaging appearances, presenting either as large invasive lung masses with or without calcifications or as smaller endobronchial lesions. Children commonly presented with long duration fever (P = 0.02) and large invasive lung masses (P = 0.026), whereas adults presented with long duration haemoptysis (P = 0.001) and endobronchial lesions or smaller lung parenchymal lesions. Calcifications were more common in children (P = 0.007). ALK-1 was positive in 40% of children and 18.2% of adults (P = 0.547). Endobronchial lesions showed a trend for ALK-1 negativity. Patients with bronchoscopic excision had local recurrence and patients with surgical wedge resection had metastatic brain lesions as compared to those with lobectomy and pneumonectomy (P = 0.0152). A patient with unresectable lung mass had malignant transformation to spindle cell sarcoma after 9.5 years.

CONCLUSIONS

Thoracic IMT presents with some distinct clinical and CT findings in adults and children. The CT findings and management options have implications for prognosis. If resectable, lobectomy is a better option than wedge resection or bronchoscopic excision for preventing local recurrence and metastasis. IMT can undergo malignant transformation.

Translocation-Related Sarcomas

Chromosomal translocations are observed in approximately 20% of soft tissue sarcomas (STS). With the advances in pathological examination technology, the identification of translocations has enabled precise diagnoses and classifications of STS, and it has been suggested that the presence of and differences in translocations could be prognostic factors in some translocation-related sarcomas. Most of the translocations in STS were not regarded as targets of molecular therapies until recently. However, trabectedin, an alkylating agent, has shown clinical benefits against translocation-related sarcoma based on a modulation of the transcription of the tumor's oncogenic fusion proteins. Many molecular-targeted drugs that are specific to translocations (e.g., anaplastic lymphoma kinase and tropomyosin kinase related fusion proteins) have emerged. The progress in gene technologies has allowed researchers to identify and even induce new translocations and fusion proteins, which might become targets of molecular-targeted therapies. In this review, we discuss the clinical significance of translocation-related sarcomas, including their diagnoses and targeted therapies.