[Thymic basaloid carcinoma]

Abstract

This is a case of a 72-year-old male whose chest computed tomography (CT) revealed a 2.0 x 1.6 cm anterior mediastinal solid tumor during follow-up of an abnormal shadow of the lung. The tumor increased its size during preoperative follow-up, and multilocular cyst was also observed. Radical thymectomy was performed, and histopathologically the tumor was diagnosed as thymic basaloid carcinoma. Thymic basaloid carcinoma is a rare tumor and is often associated with multilocular thymic cyst. There are only 32 cases reported both locally and internationally. Surgical resection is the general treatment for this disease. Adjuvant radiotherapy can be considered in cases of incomplete resection and invasive tumor. In our case, no recurrence of the tumor was noted 12 months post-operative. Generally, the malignancy of thymic basaloid carcinomas are regarded as low-grade compared with other thymic carcinomas, however, since mortality and recurrence have been reported, careful follow-up is required.