Malignant thymoma associated with liposarcoma of the mediastinum--a case report

Malignant thymoma occurring concurrently with mediastinal liposarcoma in a 49-year-old man is described. The patient underwent an incomplete resection of the mediastinal mass followed by irradiation therapy and additional chemotherapy. He died about 9 months after the detection of a mediastinal mass on chest X-ray films and the immediate cause of death was superior vena cava syndrome. The incidence of primary liposarcoma of the mediastinum alone is extremely rare. Only a few more than 20 with such a lesion have been documented in Japan. A review of the literature of patients with mediastinal liposarcoma and thymoma associated with malignancies revealed no case of an association of thymoma and liposarcoma.