title: Mediastinal lymphangiomatosis coexisting with occult thymic carcinoma.
abstract: Mediastinal lymphangiomatosis in a 70-year-old woman was diagnosed on a medical checkup. The tumor was resistant to sclerotherapy with OK432 or bleomycin. The patient continued on a downhill course and died approximately 3 years after the initial diagnosis. Autopsy revealed a large tumor mass occupying the anterior mediastinum and firmly adhered to the pericardium and the pleura. The tumor consisted of two intermingled lesions: dilated vessels lined with D2-40-positive lymphatic endothelium and CD5-positive atypical cell nests with focal keratinization. The former was diagnosed as lymphangiomatosis and the latter as thymic squamous cell carcinoma. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-C, a growth factor for lymphatic endothelial cells, was expressed by the carcinoma, and VEGF-C receptor was expressed by the endothelium of lymphangiomatosis. These findings suggested that VEGF-C derived from the thymic carcinoma induced the lymphangiomatosis lesion in a paracrine manner.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Yamada-oka 2-2, Suita 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun-ichiro
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: Eiichi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Morii
authors.forename: Yasuhiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tomita
authors.forename: Binglin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Toshiteru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tokunaga
authors.forename: Masayoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Minami
authors.forename: Meinoshin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okumura
authors.forename: Katsuyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aozasa
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008202:Lymphangioma / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D009378:Neoplasms, Multiple Primary / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D042582:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D042582:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C