Malignant pleural effusion (2)

Another example of a malignant pleural effusion – this patient has a very large right pleural effusion extending along the horizontal fissure (yellow arrow). Note the absent breast shadow on the left, with normal breast shadow on the right (orange arrows). If you look carefully, you may also notice that most of the visualised boned are very dense (for example, look at the right humeral head, and look how easy it is to see the densely sclerotic right ribs through the pleural effusion and the thoracic vertebrae through the heart). As you know, breast cancer is one of the causes of sclerotic bone metastases.