Pulmonary and pleural metastases from benign meningeal meningioma: a case report

Abstract

Meningiomas are generally benign tumors, but rarely metastasize outside of the central nervous system. A 25-year-old female was admitted to our institute because of an abnormal shadow on her chest x-ray. A computed tomography (CT) scan showed a 3-cm, well- circumscribed mass in the right lower lobe of the lung. We performed thoracotomy and resected three pulmonary tumors at the right lung and diaphragm. Histological examination revealed a benign meningothelial meningioma. Six months later, she complained of heaviness of her head and a head CT scan revealed an intracranial mass. A craniotomy was performed and a brain tumor was found to be histologically identical to the lung tumors. During the 21 years since the first operation, we performed three times of pulmonary and pleural metastasectomies and two times of resection of intracranial local recurrences. All of those tumors were meningothelial meningioma without malignant change. The patient is alive without metastasis after the last resection of metastatic tumors.