Efficacy of steroid therapy on liver metastasis of thymic carcinoid

We present a 61-year-old man who was hospitalized because of dyspnea, abdominal pain and liver dysfunction accompanied by ascites due to hepatic metastasis of a thymic carcinoid 20 years after the primary tumor was excised. His symptoms and liver function were well controlled by prednisolone, 30 to 60 mg daily, for the next 2 years, with a reduction in the size of the hepatic tumors and in the accumulation of ascites. He subsequently contracted pneumonia due to methicillin-resistant staphylococci, developed disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and died. Thus, prednisolone should be considered for treating patients with metastasis of a thymic carcinoid.