Tuberculosis mimicking Rhabdomyosarcoma Metastasis in a pediatric patient

Abstract

In childhood sarcomas, the lung is one of the most common organs where metastasis occurs. Immunosuppression caused by antineoplastic treatments for primary cancer may facilitate the reactivation of latent tuberculosis (TB) infection, which can mimic cancer metastasis. The thought of lung metastasis is an important entity that changes the follow-up and treatment approach. Evaluating TB in initial differential diagnosis can prevent unjustifiable chemoradiotherapy and surgery. In this case report, we submit a 2-years-old boy under follow up of alveolar type rhabdomyosarcoma in masseter muscle also received chemoradiotherapy with a pre-diagnosis of lung metastasis patient who underwent surgical resection when the treatment didn’t produce any benefit and all of the 34 excised nodules from the right lung were reported as “granulomatous inflammation suggestive of TB.”