A Case Report of Mesothelioma Response to Endocrine Therapy in Synchronous Breast Cancer and Pleural Epithelioid Mesothelioma: A Double Exemestane Effect

Synchronous pleural mesothelioma (PM) and breast cancer are extremely rare. We present the case of a 53-year-old female diagnosed with localized breast cancer. She was radically treated with surgery, but during the adjuvant radiotherapy, the patient developed fever and dyspnoea, and pleural thickeni...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2022-11, Vol.14 (11), p.e31579
Main Authors: Pina, Marta, Fernandes, Rute, Fonseca, Diogo, Oliveira, Cristina, Rodrigues, Ana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asbestos
Asymptomatic
Biopsy
Breast cancer
Cancer therapies
Case reports
Chemotherapy
Endocrine therapy
Lymphatic system
Medical imaging
Medical prognosis
Mesothelioma
Multidisciplinary teams
Mutation
Oncology
Patients
Pleural effusion
Quality of life
Radiation therapy
Therapeutics
Tomography
Tumors
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Summary:Synchronous pleural mesothelioma (PM) and breast cancer are extremely rare. We present the case of a 53-year-old female diagnosed with localized breast cancer. She was radically treated with surgery, but during the adjuvant radiotherapy, the patient developed fever and dyspnoea, and pleural thickening was found on a CT scan. The biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of a synchronous malignancy - pleural epithelioid mesothelioma. The patient stopped radiotherapy and started adjuvant endocrine therapy with exemestane, a third-generation aromatase inhibitor, with an unexpected partial response to the PM. The patient remains on exemestane with a sustained partial response. This is a rare case of synchronous tumours that show a real-life benefit of exemestane in the treatment of pleural mesothelioma, which was only described in vitro, with a good sustained response. This suggests a potential for exemestane in the treatment of mesothelioma, which is an aggressive form of cancer with few therapeutics with sustained results.
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.31579