COVID-19 Vaccine-related Lymphadenopathy in Lung Cancer Patients: a Presentation of Three Cases with Suggestions for Management

Abstract

Background. Axillary lymphadenopathy after COVID-19 vaccination have been frequently reported in the medical literature. This benign reaction can be confused with metastases of thoracic malignancies. We experienced three lung cancer cases with COVID-19 vaccine-related lymphadenopathy. Case presentations. Three patients were included. One was a preoperative patient, and the others were post-operative patients. All of them were patients with lung cancer and had been vaccinated for COVID-19. They were found to have swelling of the axial lymph nodes on computed tomography several days after undergoing vaccination for COVID-19. Two patients underwent an axial lymph node biopsy. The results of biopsies and close follow-up revealed that none of them actually had metastasis. Conclusions. Invasive examinations should be avoided, but inappropriate upstaging and downstaging may result in miserable outcomes. We herein report three cases with imaging and pathological characteristics.