A Case of Long-term Survival Achieved by Surgical Resection for Pulmonary Metastatic Recurrence After Surgery for Thymic Carcinoma

Hikaru Watanabe, Naoki Kanauchi

Nihonkai General Hospital, YAMAGATA, Japan

Date, time and location: 2018.05.25 15:30, Congress Hall, 2F–C

Abstract

[Introduction]

Thymic carcinoma is a relatively rare disease with a poor prognosis. Although there are increasing reports of the efficacy of multimodal therapy, no consensus has yet been reached on therapeutic strategies.

[Case]

A 74-year-old man was referred with valvular heart disease to the internal medicine department of our hospital. Because chest computed tomography (CT) revealed a solid tumor with a maximum diameter of 25 mm in the anterior mediastinum, he was referred to our department. We performed thymectomy under the suspicion of a thymic epithelial tumor. The pathological diagnosis was squamous cell thymic carcinoma (pT2N0M0-Stage II). After surgery, although radiotherapy was considered as adjuvant treatment, the patient was placed on follow-up without radiotherapy in consideration of comorbidities. A growing pulmonary metastases in the left lower lobe (S10) occurred two years following the resection of the tumor; the metastatic nodule was resected. A diagnostic examination detected squamous cell carcinoma resembling the primary thymic carcinoma. Thus, a metastatic pulmonary tumor was diagnosed. As the effects of postoperative adjuvant therapy were unknown at that time, the patient has since been followed up carefully. Five years and six months have passed since surgery, to date, and he remains alive without recurrence.

[Conclusion]

We experienced a case in which long-term survival was achieved by surgical resection for a solitary pulmonary metastatic recurrence after surgery for thymic carcinoma. Surgical treatment might resulted in a good prognosis for patients with a solitary pulmonary metastatic recurrence.