A comparison of the pathological malignant grade with the preoperative diagnostic imaging of three resected cases of solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura

Abstract

Background. Solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura (SFTP) is a rare disease, and its malignant grade is difficult to evaluate before resection. Cases. In the preoperative diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance images (DW-MRI) of this series of 3 cases of SFTP, a low-grade-malignant SFTP in a 53-year-old woman presented no signal, a low-grade-malignant SFTP with relatively increased mitoses in a 66-year-old man presented a slightly high signal lesion, and a malignant SFTP in an 88-year-old man presented a heterogeneously high signal lesion. The tumors displayed no definite differences in their CT images or T1/T2-weighted MRI images. In addition, the case of the malignant SFTP showed a low standardized uptake maximum value on an FDG-PET image. Conclusion. DW-MRI may be useful for the preoperative evaluation of the malignant grade of SFTP.