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Thymic carcinoma metastasize to the small intestine: a case report
Yi Yuan1, Hong Pu1, Ming-Hui Pang2
1Department of Radiology, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, 32# Second Section of First Ring Road, Qingyang District, Chengdu, 610070, Sichuan, China.
Background:
Thymic carcinoma is a rare mediastinal neoplasm with a high malignant potential. It often shows pleural invasion and distant metastasis. The metastasis of thymic carcinoma to the small intestine is rarely reported and difficult to distinguish from other gastrointestinal tract tumors.
Case Presentation:
An elderly man presented with lower abdominal pain for 2 months. Abdominal CT showed a mass communicated with the small intestinal lumen. After radical resection of the small intestinal tumor, resected specimens showed moderately differentiated squamous-cell carcinoma with lymph nodes metastases. The patient received chest CT and was found to have a mass in anterior mediastinum. Biopsies of the mass revealed thymic squamous-cell carcinoma.
Conclusions:
We highlighted the metastasis of thymic carcinoma to the small intestine is rare and easily misdiagnosed. In patients with a mass communicated with the small intestinal lumen, a suspicion of thymic carcinoma metastasis should not be overlooked and we should make accurate differential diagnosis from the other small intestinal tumors.
