Kapur Payal, Rakheja Dinesh, Bastasch Michael, Molberg Kyle H, Sarode Venetia R
Department of Pathology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390-9073, USA.
Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2006 Feb;130(2):201-4. doi: 10.5858/2006-130-201-PMAOTT.
Primary thymic mucinous adenocarcinoma is extremely rare; to our knowledge, only 2 cases have been reported to date. We describe a third case of primary mucinous adenocarcinoma of the thymus in a 41-year-old man who presented with an anterior mediastinal mass with subsequent metastasis to the lung. The initial diagnosis was of metastatic mucinous adenocarcinoma, but extensive clinical workup of the patient failed to reveal a primary tumor elsewhere in the body. The specific identification of mucinous adenocarcinoma as a primary thymic neoplasm can be difficult or impossible. Morphologic and immunophenotypic similarities to mucinous adenocarcinomas of the gastrointestinal tract can pose diagnostic challenges for surgical pathologists, especially in small biopsy specimens.
原发性胸腺黏液腺癌极为罕见；据我们所知，迄今为止仅报道过2例。我们描述了第三例原发性胸腺黏液腺癌，患者为一名41岁男性，表现为前纵隔肿块，随后转移至肺部。最初诊断为转移性黏液腺癌，但对该患者进行的广泛临床检查未能发现身体其他部位存在原发性肿瘤。将黏液腺癌明确鉴定为原发性胸腺肿瘤可能困难甚至无法做到。其与胃肠道黏液腺癌在形态学和免疫表型上的相似性会给外科病理学家带来诊断挑战，尤其是在小活检标本中。
