2 FAMILIAL MESOTHELIOMA CASES WITH HIGH-CONCENTRATIONS OF SOLUBLE CYTOKERATIN-19 FRAGMENT IN PLEURAL FLUID

We report two cases of diffuse malignant pleural mesothelioma occurrin g almost simultaneously in one family. Patient 1 was a 42-year-old Jap anese man who had worked as an electrical engineer for 25 years. Patie nt 2, his mother, was 69 years old. She lived for 10 years with patien t 1 after he started his work, and also worked at a shipyard herself f or 6 years. The concentrations of cytokeratin subunit 19 fragment (CYF RA 21-1) in pleural fluid of the two patients were 1,500 ng/ml, and 1, 200 ng/ml, respectively. Measurement of CYFRA 21-1 concentration in th e pleural fluid may be a useful tool for a diagnosis of malignant meso thelioma.