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Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 16, 2025; 13(32): 110897
Published online Nov 16, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i32.110897
Positron emission tomography/computed tomography in risk-factor-negative young female with malignant pleural mesothelioma: A case report and review of literature
Aikedan Aisikaer, Mo-Mo Sun, Jie Shen
Aikedan Aisikaer, Mo-Mo Sun, Jie Shen, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin 300192, China
Author contributions: Aisikaer A made the diagnosis, reviewed the literature and contributed to manuscript drafting; Sun MM made partial revisions to the manuscript; Shen J participated in the design of case report and was responsible for the revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; all authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Supported by the Tianjin Science and Technology Project, No. TJWJ2025RC008.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jie Shen, Chief, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Tianjin First Central Hospital, No. 24 Fukang Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300192, China. 5020200073@nankai.edu.cn
Received: July 3, 2025
Revised: July 29, 2025
Accepted: September 17, 2025
Published online: November 16, 2025
Processing time: 134 Days and 18.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: In China, malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is characterized by low definitive diagnosis rates and high misdiagnosis frequencies due to nonspecific clinical manifestations, epidemiological rarity and under-recognition in systemic diagnosis. We present a paradigmatic case of MPM in a young female patient without documented asbestos exposure, detected by F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (F-18 FDG PET/CT), but failed to demonstrate disseminated pleural micrometastases. This case challenges the conventional risk stratification paradigm (elderly/asbestos-exposed populations), reveals the technical limitations of F-18 FDG PET/CT in detecting localized lesions, and provides evidence-based impetus for enhancing diagnostic vigilance among clinicians and nuclear medicine specialists.