Disseminated Tuberculosis Mimicking Lung Cancer with Multiple Bone Metastasis: A Case Report

Tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) of which attacking various organs particularly the lungs. Tuberculosis can occur together with malignancy or manifest as malignancy. Lung tuberculosis may appear in a variety of clinical and radiological manifestations caused by other diseases including tumors. These tumors are called pseudo-tumors. TB pseudo-tumor is a rare manifestation that can occur in immunocompetent patients in both primary and post-primary TB. The clinical presentation of TB pseudo-tumor is nonspecifi c and the clinical suspicion must be increased to diagnose related diseases. Radiological features can also be challenging to be distinguished from actual tumors. The classic manifestations of pulmonary TB are generally easy to diagnose due to the distinctive clinical and radiological characteristics nonetheless some pulmonary TB symptoms are also often found in patients with lung cancer. Infection patients resemble malignancies most were asymptomatic (> 27%) and the remaining 27% showed symptoms that varied with the average symptoms experienced about 1 month earlier. Clinical presentations that require a lot of misdiagnosis result in delayed treatment and unnecessary procedures. Establishing a diagnosis in cases of tuberculosis that causes malignancy is very important since the management and outcomes of the infection and malignancy process are quite diff erent. Consequently we report a 24-year-old man with tuberculosis possible lung cancer with multiple bone metastase. Extrapulmonary tuberculosis which attacks bones and joints constitutes 10% to 20% of all TB cases. The location of bone and joint TB generally develops in the lumbar or thoracic vertebrae.