Postmortem Investigation of Immunohistochemical Staining and Gross Description of Sarcomatoid Carcinoma of the Lung in a Patient With Extreme Leukemoid Reaction

A 72-year-old male smoker was brought into the emergency department complaining of 4 months of progressive dyspnea and fatigue. Computed tomography angiogram of the lungs was negative for pulmonary embolism; however, a 10 cm right upper lobe mass and multiple bilateral pulmonary nodules were identified. While computed tomography scan of the head showed no lesions in the brain, there was osseous destruction of the right mandible. Records obtained from an outside hospital indicated that he had 2 prior biopsies of this lung mass that failed to show malignant cells. In addition, an outpatient positron emission tomography scan had shown increased tracer uptake in this mass as well as multiple nodules in the contralateral lung and in the left adrenal gland. This gentleman was admitted for sepsis and was started on broad-spectrum antibiotics. He continued to have respiratory compromise and required transfer to the intensive care unit for intubation and mechanical ventilation. Over the next 4 days, the patient progressed into septic shock requiring vasopressors and developed worsening respiratory failure. His white blood cell count continued to rise and peaked at 157 × 10(3) cells/µL. The patient’s wife decided to proceed with comfort measures and the patient subsequently expired. Autopsy was consistent with sarcomatoid carcinoma, also known as giant cell carcinoma of the lung. Immunohistochemical staining was also performed, which identified several tumor markers as well as distant metastasis, hemorrhage, and multi-organ necrosis.