[Pulmonary cryptococcosis preoperatively diagnosed as lung cancer].

A 60-year-old woman was referred to our hospital with an abnormal shadow on chest radiography. Chest computed tomography( CT) showed a nodular shadow 1 cm in diameter with spiculation at S6a of the right inferior lobe. The patient was diagnosed as having a class V squamous cell carcinoma by bronchoscopic exfoliative cytology and was thus hospitalized for surgery. The nodule was resected by partial resection of the lung for intraoperative rapid pathology. Since the diagnosis was an inflammatory node, further procedure was not performed. Histopathological examination of the permanent specimen revealed a diagnosis of pulmonary cryptococcosis.