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JAMA Oncology Clinical Challenge
March 2018

A Young Man With Disseminated Intra-abdominal Masses

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Brooklyn, New York
  • 2Department of Pathology, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Brooklyn, New York
JAMA Oncol. 2018;4(3):401-402. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2017.3432

A man in his 20s presented with a 2-month history of vague, right upper-quadrant abdominal pain, with associated 5-kg weight loss, loss of appetite, and increasing abdominal distension. He reported a small mass in the right scrotum that was evaluated 5 years previously and was reassured to be a nonmalignant lesion. Physical examination was notable for a distended abdomen with a palpable left abdominal mass. Testicular examination revealed an approximately 1-cm firm right spermatic cord nodule. Laboratory tests showed lactate dehydrogenase levels of 818 U/L (to convert to μkat/L, multiply by 0.0167), with no significant β-human chorionic gonadotropin and α-fetoprotein levels. Computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen (Figure, A and B) revealed innumerable masses throughout the abdomen and pelvis, with the largest measuring 17.5 × 14 × 14 cm and a 3.9-cm enhancing lesion in the left hepatic lobe, and a small amount of ascites. Testicular sonogram disclosed a 1.5-cm right epididymal cyst. Percutaneous biopsy and histologic examination of the dominant left abdominal mass revealed neoplastic cells (Figure, C) that were positive for cytokeratin, desmin but negative for S100. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was positive for EWS-WT1 rearrangement.

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