Lemierre's syndrome as differential diagnosis of lung cancer

Lemierre's syndrome is a disseminated infection which is usually caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum. An oropharyngeal infection progresses to a septic thrombophlebitis of the internal jugular vein and later metastatic infections throughout the body occur. We present a clinical case in which a patient, initially presenting with symptoms characteristic of pulmonary cancer, turned out to have a rare variant of Lemierre's syndrome caused by Fusobacterium nucleatum.