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

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.