Cellular cannibalism and consequent thrombocytopenia in a patient with bone marrow metastasis of malignant pleural mesothelioma: A case report

Nishikubo,Megumi; Kin,Yasuo; Tane,Shinya; Nakamura,Koji; Miyagi,Yoshimi; Miura,Akiko; Nishio,Wataru; Senzaki,Hideto; Uchino,Kazuya

doi:10.3892/mco.2021.2325

Cellular cannibalism and consequent thrombocytopenia in a patient with bone marrow metastasis of malignant pleural mesothelioma: A case report

Authors:
- Megumi Nishikubo
- Yasuo Kin
- Shinya Tane
- Koji Nakamura
- Yoshimi Miyagi
- Akiko Miura
- Wataru Nishio
- Hideto Senzaki
- Kazuya Uchino
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Affiliations: Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Osaka Saiseikai Nakatsu Hospital, Shibata, Kita‑ku, Osaka 530‑0012, Japan, Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Osaka Saiseikai Nakatsu Hospital, Shibata, Kita‑ku, Osaka 530‑0012, Japan, Division of Pathology, Osaka Saiseikai Nakatsu Hospital, Shibata, Kita‑ku, Osaka 530‑0012, Japan, Department of Hematology, Osaka Saiseikai Nakatsu Hospital, Shibata, Kita‑ku, Osaka 530‑0012, Japan, Division of Chest Surgery, Hyogo Cancer Center, Kitaouji‑cho, Akashi 673‑8558, Japan
Published online on: June 16, 2021 https://doi.org/10.3892/mco.2021.2325
Article Number: 163
Copyright: © Nishikubo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

Cellular cannibalism is a tumor activity where a cell is engulfed by another cell. This process promotes tumor cell survival under unfavorable conditions. The current report describes an extremely rare case of thrombocytopenia resulting from cellular cannibalism in a patient with bone marrow metastasis due to malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). A 77‑year‑old male presented with hemothorax and thrombocytopenia. He was diagnosed with MPM of the sarcomatoid cell type. However, his disease progressed rapidly and he died 11 days after admission. Bone marrow aspiration revealed metastatic MPM cells that had engulfed other blood cells. Accordingly, the observed thrombocytopenia was attributed to cellular cannibalism by metastatic MPM tumor cells. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of thrombocytopenia due to cellular cannibalism in a patient with this type of malignancy (MPM). The results suggested that although MPM rarely metastasizes to the bone marrow, bone marrow aspiration could be useful in such cases.

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