We report a case of a solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura which recurred to the liver and lung 20 years after the initial surgery.
A 76-year-old woman, who had undergone resection of a localized fibrous mesothelioma of the pleura of left thoracic wall at the age of 55, was referred to our hospital because of abnormal shadows on a chest roentgenogram. A chest CT scan revealed multiple pulmonary nodules and a mass 18 mm in diameter in the left lobe of the liver. Close exploration of the whole body was performed with a suspicion of metastatic tumors, but no primary lesion was detected. The patient was decided to be followed as her wishes. Nine months later, a follow-up CT scan revealed that the liver tumor enlarged to 31mm in diameter, then partial hepatectomy was performed. The histopathological diagnosis was solitary fibrous tumor which was pathologically similar to that of the pleural tumor resected before. Thus the liver and lung tumors were diagnosed as distant metastases of the solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura developed after 20 years had elapsed following the initial surgery. SFT can recur after a long-term disease-free period, but in this case, local metastasis is common and distant metastasis like in our case is rare. SFT would require a long-term follow-up by radiological examinations.