CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Pulmonary Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1673197
A rare case of pulmonary actinomycosis and concomitant small cell lung cancer
Provisionally accepted
- Peking University Third Hospital, Haidian, China
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Pulmonary actinomycosis is a rare chronic granulomatous infection with non-specific clinical and imaging manifestations, often misdiagnosed as lung cancer. We present the case of an elderly male smoker with two pulmonary space-occupying lesions on the left and right sides, respectively, both showing hypermetabolism on positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT). The CT-guided lung biopsy of the left mass confirmed pulmonary actinomycosis. After treatment with penicillin for one month, the left lung mass got resolved significantly, while the right lung nodule increased during this period. Subsequently, the right nodule was diagnosed as small cell lung cancer via the endoscopic ultrasonography combined with LungPro navigation-guided transbronchoscopic lung biopsy and underwent thoracoscopic resection. The coexistence of pulmonary actinomycosis and lung cancer is extremely rare. This case underscores the importance of thorough diagnostic evaluation and careful differentiation between infectious and neoplastic pulmonary conditions to ensure appropriate management.
Keywords: Pulmonary actinomycosis, Small Cell Lung Cancer, pulmonary nodules, Concomitant diseases, differential diagnosis
Received: 25 Jul 2025; Accepted: 25 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fang, Wang, Zhu, Gai and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaoyan Gai, gxy81wfl79@163.com
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