Mediastinal lymphangiomatosis coexisting with occult thymic carcinoma.
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.
Ikeda
Jun-ichiro
J
Department of Pathology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Yamada-oka 2-2, Suita 565-0871, Japan.
Morii
Eiichi
E
Tomita
Yasuhiko
Y
Zhang
Binglin
B
Tokunaga
Toshiteru
T
Inoue
Masayoshi
M
Minami
Masato
M
Okumura
Meinoshin
M
Aozasa
Katsuyuki
K
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
D042582:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C