Tiny thymic carcinoma completely surrounded by thymic tissue. The possibility of de novo carcinoma.
We report a case of a 61-year-old man with a tiny thymic carcinoma completely surrounded by thymic tissue. First, a thoracoscopic resection of about two-thirds of the right inferior part of the thymus containing the tumor was performed to obtain the histological diagnosis. Frozen-section diagnosis at operation revealed a thymic carcinoma. Therefore we performed a median sternotomy and resected the remnant of the thymus. A tiny thymic carcinoma completely surrounded by thymic tissue is extremely rare. In this case, as the tumor was tiny and there was a homogeneous mass without a thymoma-like component, we concluded that this tumor was de novo.
Kitami
A
A
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Showa University Fujigaoka Hospital, Yokohama, Japan.
Suzuki
T
T
Suzuki
S
S
Hori
G
G
D002277:Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology*; D005629:Frozen Sections; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*