Primary thyroid thymoma: a distinct clinicopathologic entity

A 51-year-old man presented with a paratracheal tumor. He had undergone resection of a thyroid tumor 15 years previously; at that time, the histologic diagnosis had been anaplastic carcinoma. When the tumor recurred, the presumptive clinical diagnosis was medullary thyroid carcinoma. Histologic examination revealed a poorly differentiated epithelial tumor with immunoreactivity for keratins, carcinoembryonic antigen, and, focally, S-100 protein. The tumor was negative for calcitonin and thyroglobulin. There were scattered lymphocytes and plasma cells. Ultrastructural examination showed elongated epithelial cells with prominent desmosomes and bundles of cytoplasmic tonofilaments but no secretory granules; amyloid was not present ultrastructurally or histochemically. The characteristic ultrastructural and immunocytochemical features and the clinical behavior of this tumor verify the existence of primary thyroid thymoma. This new primary thyroid neoplasm is of clinical importance, considering the more benign behavior of primary thyroid thymoma than of other tumors in the differential diagnosis of this lesion.