Surgery Treatment and Pathological Results of Patients of Malignant Hematological Disorders Complicated with Lung Diseases.

To determine the pulmonary pathological changes in patients of hematological malignancies with pulmonary complications using surgical or thoracoscopic technologie.

17 hematological malignant patients who underwent surgical treatment were evaluated retrospectively in our study. Pulmonary infection was presented in 14 cases following chemotherapy, and lesions can not be completely absorbed after a broad-spectrum anti-bacterial and anti-fungal treatment. Furthermore, computerized tomographic scanning showed that there remained several kinds of localized lesions. Subsequently, all the 17 patients underwent open lung or thoracoscopic biopsies (lobar, partial, or wedge resection). The pathological changes of all the surgical specimens were examined postoperatively by standard hematoxylin and eosin staining.

Pathological examination confirmed: Aspergillus infection in 9 patients, sub-acute inflammation (fibrosis and hematoma formation) in 3 patients, pulmonary infarction with granulomatous tissue in the periphery in 1 patient, granulomatous inflammation with calcified tubercle in 1 patient, alveolar dilation and hemorrhage, interstitial fibrosis and focal vasculitis in 1 patient, intercostal neurilemmoma in 1 patient, and moderate-differentiated adenocarcinoma accompanied by intrapulmonary metastasis in 1 patient. And several operative complications (1 case of fungal implantation, 3 cases of pleural effusion and adhesions and 2 cases of pulmonary hematoma) were occurred. The coincidence rate of pre- and post-operative diagnosis was 9/14 (64.3%). After surgery, 8 patients were received hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT, allo-gene or autologous), in which 7 cases were succeeded. Following the effective secondary antifungal prophylaxis,4 of 5 patients of aspergillosis were succeeded in transplantation free from mycotic relapse,just one patient was dead from fungal relapse.

Hematological malignancies with certain pulmonary complications, that is, persistent and/or medical-management-resistant pulmonary infection, hemoptysis, or lung diseases of diagnosis unknown, should be treated in time by surgical resection to effectively eliminate the residual disease and to achieve definitive diagnosis, so as to create a prerequisite condition for the following treatments. Moreover, the secondary antifungal prophylaxis could provide positive roles in protecting patients scheduled for chemotherapy and/or HSCT.

hematological malignancies; immunocompromise; pulmonary aspergillosis; pulmonary resection; histopathology ; secondary antifungal prophylaxis

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.