Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the thymus treated by multimodality therapy: a case report

A case report of mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the thymus, aggressively treated by multimodality therapy including surgery, radiotherapy, chemothermotherapy, and systemic chemotherapy is presented. The patient, a 53-year-old man, underwent potentially complete resection for an anterior mediastinal tumor, histologically diagnosed as a mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the thymus with Masaoka stage II disease. However, because of local recurrences in the left chest wall and pleura, re-resection was twice performed 4 years and 5 months, and 5 years and 7 months after the initial surgery, in combination with intrathoracic chemothermotherapy and irradiation. Seven years and 1 month after the initial operation, in vitro chemosensitive test based-chemotherapy using vinorelbine for pleural disease was performed, resulting in maintenance of good quality of life (QOL) due to dramatic decrease in pleural effusion. He died of tumor progression, 7 years and 9 months after the initial treatment. Although the clinical aspects of thymic mucoepidermoid carcinoma are little known, it is assumed that such aggressive therapeutic multimodalities as repeated surgical resection, irradiation and chemothermotherapy, and chemotherapy based on in vitro chemosensitivity tests contributed to long-term survival for this unusual disease.