[Eight cases of thymic carcinoma].
Eight cases of thymic carcinoma (mean age 62 years, 5 males and 3 females) were treated in our hospital from Apr. 1988 to Mar. 1993, which were 21% of thymic epithelial tumors. The histologic subtypes of thymic carcinoma were 3 squamous, 4 undifferentiated, and 1 adenocarcinoma, respectively. Computed tomography showed extrathymic metastases to the mediastinal lymph nodes in 6 cases. All cases underwent thoracotomy, and postoperative radiotherapy or chemotherapy were performed. A case of squamous cell carcinoma in stage II who underwent total resection followed by irradiation is alive and disease free 5 years after surgery. However, the remaining 7 cases died of the disease within 29 months. 8 cases of thymic carcinoma and 7 of thymoma were studied immunohistologically on the formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues. Higher positivity of EMA in thymic carcinoma was noted comparing to ordinary thymoma, suggesting that EMA is a useful parameter of potential malignancy of the thymic epithelial neoplasms.
Department of Surgery I, Tokyo Women's Medical College, Japan.
H
H
Ito
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T
Obara
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S
Sasano
T
T
Onuki
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S
Nitta
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology; D000368:Aged; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013945:Thymoma / Q000473:pathology*; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*