Suzuki Masaru, Shinagawa Naofumi, Oizumi Satoshi, Fugo Kazunori, Nishimura Masaharu
First Department of Medicine, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Lung Cancer. 2009 Mar;63(3):425-9. doi: 10.1016/j.lungcan.2008.07.018. Epub 2008 Sep 19.
Undifferentiated thymic carcinoma is a rare tumor of the thymus. Due to the extreme rarity of undifferentiated thymic carcinoma, very limited information about its characteristics is available. We encountered an autopsy case of a 33-year-old woman diagnosed as having an undifferentiated thymic carcinoma with a high inflammatory response. The patient's serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) was elevated to 1930 pg/ml, and immunohistochemical staining of the carcinoma cells was positive for neuroendocrine markers and IL-6. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an IL-6-producing undifferentiated thymic carcinoma with neuroendocrine features that shows a novel potential to produce IL-6.
未分化胸腺癌是一种罕见的胸腺肿瘤。由于未分化胸腺癌极为罕见，关于其特征的信息非常有限。我们遇到一例33岁女性的尸检病例，诊断为具有高炎症反应的未分化胸腺癌。患者血清白细胞介素-6（IL-6）升高至1930 pg/ml，癌细胞的免疫组织化学染色显示神经内分泌标志物和IL-6呈阳性。据我们所知，这是首例具有神经内分泌特征且能产生IL-6的未分化胸腺癌的报告，该肿瘤显示出产生IL-6的新潜能。
