Primary pulmonary meningioma and minute pulmonary meningothelial-like nodules: Rare pulmonary nodular lesions requiring more awareness in clinical practice

Abstract

In this editorial, we comment on an article by Ruan et al published in a recent issue of the World Journal of Clinical Case. Pulmonary meningothelial proliferative lesions, including primary pulmonary meningiomas, minute pulmonary meningothelial-like nodules, and metastatic pulmonary meningiomas are rare pulmonary lesions. These lesions are difficult to differentiate from lung cancers based on clinical and imaging manifestations. Herein, we briefly introduce the clinical, imaging, and pathological characteristics of these lesions and discuss their pathogenesis to strengthen the current understanding of pulmonary meningothelial proliferative lesions in clinical diagnosis and therapy.

Keywords: Pulmonary meningothelial proliferation; Primary pulmonary meningioma; Minute pulmonary meningothelial-like nodule; Lung neoplasm; Rare pulmonary nodular lesion

Core Tip: Primary pulmonary meningiomas (PPM) and minute pulmonary meningothelial-like nodules (MPMN) are rare pulmonary lesions, which are difficult to differentiate from lung cancers due to similarities in clinical and imaging manifestations. To avoid misdiagnosis and overtreatment, PPM and MPMN should be considered in the differential diagnoses of pulmonary nodules of difficult clinical and/or imaging procedure diagnosis, particularly of asymptomatic patients. Differentiating PPM and MPMN from other pulmonary nodule diseases and assessing the malignancy of PPMs are difficult using only imaging-procedures, and histopathological examination thus remains the gold standard diagnostic procedure. Enhancing our understanding of MPMNs and PPMs and elucidating their pathogenesis will aid in the accurate differentiation of these lesions, to improve the clinical management of patients.