Thrombotic microangiopathy as a presentation of undifferentiated metastatic carcinoma, a case report
Main Article Content
Keywords
thrombotic microangiopathy, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, cancer
Abstract
Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) is a group of hereditary or acquired syndromes that shared clinical and pathological characteristics: microvascular thrombosis, thrombocytopenia and ischaemic end-organ damage. Thrombotic microangiopathy can be a manifestation of a subjacent disease as cancer, infection, auto-immune disease and others. Patients presenting cancer-related TMA have an extremely poor prognosis. We report a case of a 61-year-old man who was admitted for persistent lumbar pain. Results from imagiological exams showed multiple retroperitoneal lymph nodes suggestive of metastatic cancer. A sudden clinical episode with changes in mental and behavioral status and laboratory alterations consistent with TMA, were observed. A first strategy including plasma exchange and steroids was performed with no clinical response. The retroperitoneal lymph node biopsy revealed undifferentiated carcinoma of unknown primary and then, chemotherapy was started.
Article Sidebar
Article Details
How to Cite
OPEN ACCESS
All the articles of the European Journal of Oncology and Environmental Health are published with open access under the CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license (the current version is CC-BY, version 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This means that the author(s) retain copyright, but the content is free to download, distribute and adapt for commercial or non-commercial purposes, given appropriate attribution to the original article.
The articles in the previous edition of the Journal (European Journal of Oncology) are made available online with open access under the CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license (the current version is CC-BY, version 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Upon submission, author(s) grant the Journal the license to publish their original unpublished work within one year, and the non exclusive right to display, store, copy and reuse the content. The CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license enables anyone to use the publication freely, given appropriate attribution to the author(s) and citing the Journal as the original publisher. The CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license does not apply to third-party materials that display a copyright notice to prohibit copying. Unless the third-party content is also subject to a CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license, or an equally permissive license, the author(s) must comply with any third-party copyright notices.