title: Adenocarcinoma of the thymus: mucinous subtype.
abstract: Primary thymic adenocarcinoma, mucinous subtype, is extremely rare with only one case reported to date. We describe herein a case of thymic mucinous adenocarcinoma. A 59-year-old man was identified to have an anterior mediastinal tumor and was diagnosed as mucinous adenocarcinoma. Clinical and radiographic examinations disclosed no evidence of tumor elsewhere. The patient received radiotherapy, but the general condition deteriorated and died 11 months after tumor detection. Thoracic autopsy revealed an anterior mediastinal tumor measuring greater than 10 cm, uncapsulated, and white. The tumor had clear margins and was clearly isolated from the lung. Histologically, the tumor demonstrated papillary, acinar, and cribriform structure and produced abundant extracellular mucin. Immunohistochemically, most tumor cells were positive for cytokeratin 7, were partially positive for CD5, and were negative for TTF-1, Sp-A, CDX-2, MUC2, napsin A, and cytokeratin 20. Collectively, the diagnosis of the tumor was primary mucinous adenocarcinoma of the thymus. We propose that the mucinous subtype should be recognized as one of the histopathological entities of thymic adenocarcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Juntendo University, School of Medicine, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan. fumiyuki@med.juntendo.ac.jp
authors.forename: Fumiyuki
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuta
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsuno
authors.forename: Kazuhisa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Michie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toba
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Toshimasa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Uekusa
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Izumi
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Sachiko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hirose
authors.forename: Yoshinosuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukuchi
mesh_terms: D002288:Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053552:Keratin-7; D007633:Keratins / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C507497:KRT7 protein, human; D053552:Keratin-7; D007633:Keratins