2006 Volume 20 Issue 6 Pages 819-823
A 77-year-old male was admitted because of the detection of an anterior mediastinal tumor. A CT guided needle biopsy was performed and he was diagnosed with thymic carcinoid. Preoperative FDG-PET showed abnormal accumulation in the tumor lesion. Tumor resection and thymectomy with mediastinal lymphnodes dissection was performed. Postoperative pathological diagnosis revealed atypical carcinoid and no metastases of mediastinal lymphnodes. He received radiation therapy after the operation. He has been well without recurrence. Thymic carcinoid is rare and classified as a neuroendcrine tumor which is different from thymoma. Although FDG-PET is reported to be useful in the diagnosis of lung cancer, Few thymic carcinoid cases detected by FDG-PET have been reported. It is expected that FDG-PET in the diagnosis of the thymic carcinoid tumor may be valuable.
