A Case of Well-Differentiated Thymic Carcinoma with Extensive Cystic Degeneration.

Kim, Kyung Wook; Choi, Byeong Kee; Chung, Byung Chun; Chang, Yoon Soo; Kim, Hyung Jung; Ahn, Chul Min; Yang, Woo Ik

doi:1999.46.5.718

Tuberc Respir Dis > Volume 46(5); 1999 > Article

Case Report

Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases 1999;46(5):718-722.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4046/trd.1999.46.5.718 Published online May 1, 1999.

A Case of Well-Differentiated Thymic Carcinoma with Extensive Cystic Degeneration.

Kyung Wook Kim, Byeong Kee Choi, Byung Chun Chung, Yoon Soo Chang, Hyung Jung Kim, Chul Min Ahn, Woo Ik Yang

¹Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.
²Department of Thoracic surgery, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.
³Department of Radiology, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.
⁴Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Thymoma is the most common tumor in the compartment of anterior mediastinum. The malignant thymoma is classified into invasive thymoma( category I ) and thymic carcinoma( category II ). Recently, well-differentiated thymic carcinoma is a proposed category 1.5 used to describe a subset of thymic epithelial tumors, allowing for the existence of intermediate form based on the clinical features and the histological characteristics. Thymic cyst is a congenital or a acquired disorder. Congenital thymic cyst may develop due to failure of the thymopharyngeal duct to obliterate and acquired thymic cyst develops from inflammation( multilocular thymic cyst ), or neoplasm( cystic thymoma ). Cystic degeneration in thymoma is a relatively frequent but focal event. In rare cases, the process proceeds to the extent that most or all of the lesion becomes cystic. Until now, well-differentiated thymic carcinoma with extensive cystic degeneration has not been reported in our country. We experienced a case of 14 year-old female patient showing extensive cystic degeneration in well-differentiated thymic carcinoma. and so we report it with review of the articles related.

Key Words: Cystic thymoma, Well-differentiated thymic carcinoma