[A rare case of a diabetic patient with small cell lung cancer, initially diagnosed as pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis].

A rare case of a patient with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) with small cell lung cancer, initially diagnosed as pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis, was reported. A 40-year-old male patient was diagnosed with NIDDM about 3 years earlier, but he did not receive any treatment. Then, a two-month history of high fever, persistent cough and back pain developed. Chest X-ray film showed a lung infiltrate with a small cavity in the upper portion of the left lung. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging of the chest revealed a tumor mass shadow with osteoclasia along the bodies of the 6th and 7th thoracic vertebral bone. Staphylococcus aureus infection was confirmed by arterial blood culture. Administration of antibiotics resulted in the disappearance of the left lung infiltrate and a slight reduction of the tumor mass in the thoracic vertebral bone, suggesting pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis as an unusual complication of NIDDM. However, as the tumor mass still remained, needle biopsy for the mass lesion was performed, resulting in the diagnosis of metastasis of small cell carcinoma from the left lung. Gene aberration in this lung disease has been reported recently, and its correlation with NIDDM which may also be induced by genetic abnormality is an interesting question that remains to be resolved.