Vanishing lung emphysema during chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma | Chest Disease Reports

We report the case of a 79-year-old man with a tobacco smoke-related left dystrophic bullous emphysema that showed a considerable recovery of the cystic abnormalities during chemotherapy for pleural malignant mesothelioma. We suggest that the disappearance of the dystrophic emphysema could be explained by the combined effect of chemotherapy and pleural disease. We briefly review the literature and we discuss the possible mechanism of this unforeseen manifestation