2018 Volume 32 Issue 6 Pages 742-747
A 52-year-old male was admitted to our hospital for evaluation of an enlarging mediastinal shadow on a chest radiograph compared with that 2 years prior. Computed tomography revealed an anterior mediastinal tumor. The patient underwent thymectomy with partial resection of the right lung and pericardium. Histopathologically, the tumor was diagnosed as combined thymic carcinoma (squamous cell carcinoma+basaloid carcinoma+mucoepidermoid carcinoma+adenocarcinoma+neuroendocrine differentiation), and tumor cells invaded the pericardium (pT3, Masaoka stage III). Postoperative radiotherapy (50 Gy/25 Fr) was performed. At 18 months after surgery, two tiny nodules appeared in the left lung, and were considered to be lung metastases from the thymic carcinoma. Stereotactic radiotherapy (50 Gy/4 Fr) was performed and the patient was alive at 30 months after surgery without recurrence. The various histopathological features of this case suggested the pluripotent differentiation of the thymic tumor cells.
