Congenital thymic cysts in the neck

Cervical thymic anomalies—The Texas Children's Hospital experience

“…The identification of thymic tissue with Hassall's corpuscles is necessary for the diagnosis, and differentiates thymic cysts from branchial cleft cysts, cystic hygroma, dermoid cysts, cystic teratoma, and cystic metastases 6, 11, 15, 16, 31, 32. Hassall's corpuscles are concentric epithelioreticular cells and macrophages in the medulla 4, 10, 16, 17, 22, 33, 34. This may require extensive sampling of cases for histology examination, especially large complex cysts where secondary changes may predominate 32…”

Carcinomas arising in multilocular thymic cysts of the neck: a clinicopathological study of three cases

“…The vast majority of cystic lesions in the neck region are not only benign but also more common in the paediatric age group 22,23 . Two different studies of cystic tumours in the neck region concluded that most of these lesions occur in patients under 20 years of age 6,7 . However, cystic lesions in adults can also occur, and there have been reports of malignancies arising from cystic lesions of the neck (thyroglossal duct cyst and branchial cleft cysts) 24–28 .…”

“…The existence of lesions showing remnants of thymic epithelium in the head and neck area is well known 2–16 . Lesions considered to have an indolent behaviour include thymic cysts and ectopic hamartomatous thymoma.…”

“…Unusual variants of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck are also known to occur; however, for the most part these tumours occur as solid tumour masses in the neck region 1 . In addition, the neck area can also harbour other unusual benign and malignant lesions 2–16 . Here we present three cases of carcinoma, one of squamous cell type and two basaloid carcinomas arising in the neck from the wall of multilocular thymic cysts (MTC) in three adult individuals without any mediastinal or thyroid connection.…”

“…1 In addition, the neck area can also harbour other unusual benign and malignant lesions. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Here we present three cases of carcinoma, one of squamous cell type and two basaloid carcinomas arising in the neck from the wall of multilocular thymic cysts (MTC) in three adult individuals without any mediastinal or thyroid connection. In addition, none of the patients had a previous history of a head and neck cancer, nor was any other tumour found during clinical evaluation.…”