Research Article
Sarcoid-Like Mediastinal Lymphadenopathy in
Gynecologic Malignancy
Bilal H. Lashari ,
1
Megumi Asai,
2
Gissele Randleman,
3
Martha Sack,
3
and Rajeshkumar Patel
4
1
Department of Internal Medicine, Abington Jeferson Health, Abington, PA, USA
2
Department of Surgery, Abington Jeferson Health, Abington, PA, USA
3
Department of Pathology, Abington Jeferson Health, Abington, PA, USA
4
Pulmonary-Critical Care Medicine, Abington Jeferson Health, Abington, PA, USA
Correspondence should be addressed to Bilal H. Lashari; bilal.lashari@jeferson.edu
Received 23 September 2017; Revised 11 January 2018; Accepted 17 January 2018; Published 14 February 2018
Academic Editor: Charlie Strange
Copyright © 2018 Bilal H. Lashari et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Noncaseating granulomas are seen surrounding tumors with varying frequency, possibly as part of an immune response to tumor
cells. However, data about the association of sarcoid with gynecologic malignancy is sparse. We performed a search of our
institutional database for all EBUS-TBNA biopsies conducted within the past fve years that revealed granulomatous infammation.
All adult female patients with a history of gynecologic malignancy were included. Patients with a history of sarcoidosis or fungal
or mycobacterial infection were excluded. All patients with evidence of malignant cells on TBNA specimen were excluded. Our
results revealed 65 patients with histologic diagnosis of a noncaseating granuloma on EBUS-TBNA. Five patients (7.69%) had a
history of gynecologic malignancy. Two patients had evidence of PET-positive nodes on surveillance scans, which led directly to
the examination. Our fndings suggest that distant malignancies may cause granulomatous lymphadenitis, through yet undefned
mechanisms. As such, patients with evidence of mediastinal lymphadenopathy could beneft from routine sampling and histologic
examination to defne the pathology in the correct clinical context.
1. Introduction
Granulomatous infammation in lymph nodes can be
attributable to nonspecifc infammation such as sarcoidosis
or secondary to fungal and mycobacterial infection or foreign
body reaction to respiratory inhalants [1]. It has been asso-
ciated with neoplastic disease in regional and distant lymph
nodes. It was described in association with Non-Small Cell
Lung Cancer [2] and as high as 14% in Hodgkin disease [3].
Te causes of this phenomenon are currently unknown.
Recent studies have indicated that granulomatous lym-
phadenitis may precede the development of and follow the
resolution of a wide range of malignancy [4, 5].
Regional chest diseases and lymphoma understandably
involve mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes. However, lit-
tle data is available regarding the relationship of nonlocal
malignancy and mediastinal lymphadenopathy, especially
gynecologic malignancy [6].
2. Materials and Methods
Afer IRB approval (IRB Number 16-046) a retrospective
review was performed of all endobronchial ultrasound
guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) biop-
sies performed between 2013 and 2016 at our institution, with
histologic fndings of granuloma, histiocytes, and giant cells.
All female patients with age greater than 18 were included.
Patients with a history of or other clinical features consistent
with sarcoidosis or evidence of mycobacterial or fungal infec-
tion by tissue staining or culture were excluded. In addition,
all patients with evidence of malignant cells on tissue sam-
pling, in addition to granulomatous features, were excluded.
3. Procedure
All bronchoscopy procedures were performed under gen-
eral anesthesia. A comprehensive and systematic ultrasonic
Hindawi
Pulmonary Medicine
Volume 2018, Article ID 5141575, 4 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5141575