An 81-year-old man was referred to a cancer hospital in Milan with a nodule in the middle lobe of his lung. His PET scan showed a maximum standardized uptake value of 10.96, a level of metabolic activity that, in most clinics, is considered a strong signal for malignancy. His hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes were hot too.
A needle sampling of his lymph nodes came back negative, but the suspicion of cancer was strong enough that he went to the operating room for a wedge resection through a thoracotomy. The pathology showed fibrotic tissue, chronic inflammation, and lipoid material. There was no cancer. He had lipoid pneumonia, a buildup of lipids in the air sacs of the lungs.
