Published in

SAGE Publications, International Journal of Surgical Pathology, 4(29), p. 352-357, 2020

DOI: 10.1177/1066896920963803

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Micronodular Thymomas With Prominent Cystic Changes: A Clinicopathological and Immunohistochemical Study of 25 Cases

Journal article published in 2020 by Diana M. Oramas, Cesar A. Moran ORCID
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

Full text: Unavailable

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Twenty-five cases of micronodular thymomas with prominent cystic changes are presented. The patients are 13 men and 12 women between the ages of 38 and 69 years. Clinically, the majority of patients presented with nonspecific symptoms of cough, chest pain, and dyspnea. Four patients were asymptomatic. Diagnostic imaging showed the presence of an anterior mediastinal mass and surgical resection of the tumor mass was performed in all the patients. Histologically, all the tumors were characterized by the presence of cystic structures of varying sizes lined by different types of epithelium. In addition, the tumors were characterized by nodules of epithelial cells embedded in a lymphocyte-rich stroma with germinal centers. Twenty-one tumors were encapsulated while 4 tumors were minimally invasive. Immunohistochemical stains were positive for keratin in the nodular epithelial component while CD45 and CD20 were positive in the lymphoid component. Clinical follow-up ranging from 12 to 24 months was obtained in 19 patients. All the patients were alive and well without disease. No clinical follow-up was available in 6 patients. The cases presented in this article highlight the existence of cystic micronodular thymomas, which can be easily misdiagnosed as a multilocular thymic cyst.