Abstract
Mediastinal lymphangiomatosis in a 70-year-old woman was diagnosed on a medical checkup. The tumor was resistant to sclerotherapy with OK432 or bleomycin. The patient continued on a downhill course and died approximately 3 years after the initial diagnosis. Autopsy revealed a large tumor mass occupying the anterior mediastinum and firmly adhered to the pericardium and the pleura. The tumor consisted of two intermingled lesions: dilated vessels lined with D2-40-positive lymphatic endothelium and CD5-positive atypical cell nests with focal keratinization. The former was diagnosed as lymphangiomatosis and the latter as thymic squamous cell carcinoma. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-C, a growth factor for lymphatic endothelial cells, was expressed by the carcinoma, and VEGF-C receptor was expressed by the endothelium of lymphangiomatosis. These findings suggested that VEGF-C derived from the thymic carcinoma induced the lymphangiomatosis lesion in a paracrine manner.
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This paper is supported by grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
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Ikeda, Ji., Morii, E., Tomita, Y. et al. Mediastinal lymphangiomatosis coexisting with occult thymic carcinoma. Virchows Arch 450, 211–214 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-006-0333-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-006-0333-z