Diagnostic evaluation of metastatic placental site trophoblastic tumor.

BACKGROUND

Placental site trophoblastic tumor, a type of gestational trophoblastic disease, is a rare tumor composed of intermediate trophoblasts.

CASE

We report the case of a 47-year-old woman with 1 year of amenorrhea who presented with cough in the absence of gynecologic symptoms. She was found to have diffuse pulmonary metastases that were nonhypermetabolic on positron emission tomography (PET) scan. She was diagnosed with Stage 3 metastatic placental site trophoblastic tumor 12 years after her most recent pregnancy.

CONCLUSION

Placental site trophoblastic tumor is an unusual malignancy that may present remotely from antecedent gestational events. The relatively slow growth rate of this tumor may explain the lack of PET findings in our case.