Thymoma Presenting as a Giant Intrathoracic Mass

Abstract

Summary:Thymoma is an epithelial neoplasm of the thymus, which commonly lies in the anterior mediastinum. Thymomas comprise about 1% of all mediastinal tumours. The current treatment of invasive thymoma is often multidisciplinary. This report presents a case of giant thymoma arising in the anterior mediastinum. Introduction:Thymomas are epithelial neoplasm of the thymus.The overall incidence of thymoma is rare, which approximately 0.15 cases per 100,000 of the population per year 1 . Thymoma account for about 20 percent of mediastinal neoplasm. Localization of thymoma resembles that of thymus itself with 75% of thymoma originating in anterior mediastinum,15% originating in both anterior and superior mediastinum, 6% originating in the superior mediastinum.Other 4% occur ectopically 2 . In general, thymomas are indolent tumors with local recurrence rather than metastasis. Thymic carcinomas, however, are typically invasive, with high risk of relapse and death 3,4 . Most thymomas patients are between 40 to 60 years of age, and there is slight male predominance. Invasive thymomas and thymic carcinomas are relatively rare tumors, which together represent about 0.2-1.5% of all malignancies 5 . The major