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Vol.50 No.1 contents | Japanese/English |
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- Case Report -
Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma of Thymus with Myasthenia Gravis
Ayako Seike1, Satoshi Nagasaka1, Hiromi Kuwata1, Hideyuki Ito11Department of Thoracic Surgery, International Medical Center, Japan
Background. It is well known that mucoepidermoid carcinoma is an extremely rare subtype of thymic cancer. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the thymus complicated by myasthenia gravis has not been reported. Case. The patient was a 62-year-old woman who presented with dysphagia, which was diagnosed as myasthenia gravis. Chest CT showed a tumor 4.5×6 cm in size in the anterior mediastinum. The patient was prescribed prednisolone and pyridostigmine bromide for myasthenia gravis. The myasthenia gravis improved, and chest CT showed a reduction in tumor size. It was suspected the tumor was thymoma. The thymoma and an enlarged thymus were surgically removed by median sternotomy. The pathological diagnosis of the specimen was mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the thymus. Conclusion. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the thymus complicated by myasthenia gravis is extremely rare.
key words: Thymic cancer, Mucoepidermoid carcinoma, Myasthenia gravis
Received: March 17, 2009
Accepted: August 11, 2009
JJLC 50 (1): 12-14, 2010
