Liang H, Zhao YF, Zhang LP, Wu YK. Overall clinical course of indeterminate dendritic cell tumor patients without skin lesions: A rare case report. World J Clin Cases 2024; 12(19): 4022-4028 [PMID: 38994275 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i19.4022]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ya-Kun Wu, Doctor, Director, Professor, Researcher, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Suining Central Hospital, No. 127 Desheng West Road, Chuanshan District, Suining 629000, Sichuan Province, China. 353827514@qq.com
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Hao Liang, Ya-Kun Wu, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Suining Central Hospital, Suining 629000, Sichuan Province, China
Yun-Fei Zhao, Department of Pathology, Suining Central Hospital, Suining 629000, Sichuan Province, China
Liu-Ping Zhang, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Suining Central Hospital, Suining 629000, Sichuan Province, China
Co-first authors: Hao Liang and Yun-Fei Zhao.
Author contributions: Liang H contributed to conceptualization, methodology and investigation, formal analysis, writing original draft; Zhao YF contributed to conceptualization, acquisition of data, writing original draft; Zhang LP contributed to methodology, acquisition of data, writing original draft; Wu YK contributed to conceptualization, methodology, supervision and revising article; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript, and they were accountable for contents of the article.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ya-Kun Wu, Doctor, Director, Professor, Researcher, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Suining Central Hospital, No. 127 Desheng West Road, Chuanshan District, Suining 629000, Sichuan Province, China. 353827514@qq.com
Received: March 14, 2024 Revised: April 30, 2024 Accepted: May 22, 2024 Published online: July 6, 2024 Processing time: 106 Days and 21.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Indeterminate dendritic cell tumor (IDCT) is a rare tumor of immune cells, and IDCT patients without skin lesions are rarely reported. Therefore, the clinical course in this type of patient is unclear, and further research on the underlying pathological mechanisms and appropriate treatments is needed.
CASE SUMMARY
This study describes a female IDCT patient with bile duct lesions. The strong mimicry of IDCT lesions confused doctors, and consequently, this patient, who had no skin lesions, was first diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma. Then, she presented with persistent abdominal distension without jaundice. Enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes along with massive ascites were observed in the subsequent imaging examination. However, no tumor cells or pathogens were found in the three subsequent ascites analyses. It took 2 years to reach the correct diagnosis, which was eventually obtained by performing surgery for biopsy of the patient’s abdominal lymph nodes. However, by then, she was already in a cachexic state. Finally, she received a cycle of cyclophosphamide therapy and was advised to visit a hospital specializing in rare diseases.
CONCLUSION
For IDCT patients without skin lesions, early biopsy is the key to obtaining a correct diagnosis. Moreover, the collective management of IDCT patients is important. Further histological and molecular biology studies based on human specimens are critical for understanding the pathological mechanism of dendritic cell tumors in the future.
Core Tip: The clinical course in indeterminate dendritic cell tumor (IDCT) patients without skin lesions was about 2 years. The strong mimicry of IDCT lesions confused doctors, and consequently, this patient, who had no skin lesions, was first diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma. No tumor cells or pathogens were found in the three subsequent ascites analyses. The correct diagnosis was eventually obtained by performing surgery for biopsy of the patient’s abdominal lymph nodes. IDCT is fairly rare, and the surgery for biopsy is important for the IDCT. Therefore, the collective management of IDCT patients in a hospital specializing in rare diseases is interesting and cost-effective.
