title: Ataxia induced by a thymic neuroblastoma in the elderly patient.
abstract: Thymic neuroblastoma is a rare tumor with only few reports in modern literature. Whereas most data is taken from childhood neuroblastoma, little is known about the characteristics of the disease in the adult and elderly population. There are significant differences between adult and childhood neuroblastoma which are reviewed below. We report a case of a 62-year-old male who presented with neurological symptoms of ataxia and opsoclonus and an anterior mediastinal mass. Ultimately, the patient underwent a resection of the mass and pathologic review identified a thymic neuroblastoma. This is the first case of thymic neuroblastoma associated with symptomatic central nervous system disease; it is presented with an up-to-date review of the previous cases in the field as well with a review of the literature of post adolescent neuroblastoma.
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75th Francis Street, Boston, 02115, MA, USA. owiesel@partners.org.
authors.forename: Ory
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Wiesel
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75th Francis Street, Boston, 02115, MA, USA. sbhattacharyya3@partners.org.
authors.forename: Shamik
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhattacharyya
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75th Francis Street, Boston, 02115, MA, USA. hvaitkevicius@partners.org.
authors.forename: Henrikas
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vaitkevicius
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75th Francis Street, Boston, 02115, MA, USA. sprasad2@partners.org.
authors.forename: Sashank
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75th Francis Street, Boston, 02115, MA, USA. cmcnamee@partners.org.
authors.forename: Ciaran
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McNamee
mesh_terms: D001259:Ataxia / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D011379:Prognosis; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery