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Vol.45 No.4 contents | Japanese/English |
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- Case Report -
A Case of Mucosa-associated Lymphoid Tissue (MALT) Lymphoma of the Thymus in an Octogenarian
Katsumoto Hatanaka1, Katsutoshi Adachi11Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Shingu Municipal Center, Japan
Background. Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma of the thymus is a very rare extranodal malignant lymphoma. MALT lymphoma of the thymus shows a large irregular mass in the anterior mediastinum on chest roentgenograms or CT scans. Therefore, differentiating MALT lymphoma from other anterior mediastinal tumors, such as thymoma, or germ cell tumor, is difficult. Case. An 82-year-old man was admitted to the Internal Medicine Department of our hospital for treatment of acute bronchitis, whereupon chest X-ray film and CT showed a large, well-defined mass in the anterior mediastinum. Suspected of having thymoma, he was referred to our department for surgery. An anterior mediastinal tumor was removed through a standard midline sternotomy incision. As a result, the case was diagnosed as having MALT lymphoma of the thymus. Conclusion. We described a case of MALT lymphoma of the thymus. Immunostaining of lymphocytes was useful in making an accurate diagnosis.
key words: Malignant lymphoma in the mediastinum, Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT), Thymus
Received: August 30, 2004
Accepted: April 21, 2005
JJLC 45 (4): 351-355, 2005
