A Granada resident wins an award for identifying a rare bone tumor different from a previous cancer
Sara de Cabanyes, a resident internal physician at the Provincial Anatomical Pathology Unit of Granada, has received the award for the best oral presentation by residents of the SEAP-IAP for a case that made it possible to detect a pseudomyogenic hemangioendothelioma in a patient with previous colon cancer.
A resident internal physician at the Provincial Unit of Pathological Anatomy of Granada, Sara de Cabanyes, has received the award for the best oral presentation by residents at the Spring Meeting of the Spanish Society of Pathological Anatomy (SEAP-IAP), held in Córdoba. The awarded work made it possible to identify a very rare bone tumor in a patient who had overcome colon cancer.
An arm pain that was not a metastasis
The patient, aged 53, began to notice pain in his right arm. Tests detected a lesion that was destroying part of the bone, so it was initially suspected that it could be a metastasis, that is, the spread of his previous cancer to another part of the body.
The analysis of a sample of the affected tissue revealed that it was a pseudomyogenic hemangioendothelioma, a tumor that originates in cells related to blood vessels. According to the specialists, its appearance in the bone as a single, large lesion is especially exceptional.
To reach the diagnosis, the team combined the study of the cells under the microscope with techniques to identify proteins and genetic alterations of the tumor. Those analyses ruled out that it was a spread of the previous cancer and determined the true nature of the lesion. The patient underwent surgery to remove the tumor and, according to the available follow-up, continues without signs of disease.
Joint work of two hospitals
The study arose from clinical activity and reflects the collaboration between professionals from the Virgen de las Nieves and Clínico San Cecilio university hospitals. The Provincial Unit of Pathological Anatomy, with its central laboratory at Clínico San Cecilio, brings together specialists who serve the entire province.
Nazaret Ceballos, Ovidiu Preda, Beatriz Ocaña and Aurelio Martín, Pathological Anatomy professionals from both hospitals, also appear as authors of the awarded presentation.
De Cabanyes has pointed out that «a history of cancer is essential information, but we must not assume that any new lesion appearing in an oncology patient is necessarily a progression of their previous disease». The head of the unit, Javier Luis López, has stressed that the recognition highlights the joint work and collaboration between specialists to resolve complex cases.