Minimal change nephrotic syndrome associated with invasive thymoma: a case report with literature review.

The present report describes a case of nephrotic syndrome (NS) with invasive thymoma. A male patient was hospitalized for severe edema with reduced urine output. He had a history of thymectomy and radiotherapy because of invasive thymoma 4 years before the development of NS. Renal biopsy displayed minimal change disease (MCD). Although imaging study showed probably recurrent sign of invasive thymoma, the patient still received steroid monotherapy for ~ 9 months and he got partial remission of NS at the 8th week. Therefore, we suggest that MCD should be taken into account as a pathological lesion type in old NS patients with thymoma. In spite of longer remission time, steroid monotherapy and combination therapy with immunosuppressant are effective for thymoma-associated MCD.