Multidisciplinary treatment of advanced thymic neuroendocrine carcinoma (carcinoid): Report of a successful case and review of the literature

Filosso, Pier Luigi; Dato, Guglielmo Mario Actis; Ruffini, Enrico; Bretti, S.; Ozzello, Franca; Mancuso, Maurizio

doi:10.1016/j.jtcvs.2003.09.058

Cited by 41 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The majority of patients diagnosed with thymic NEC are in the 4th and 5th decades of life, and there is a 3:1 male to female ratio (5,11,12). Symptomatic patients usually present with dyspnea, cough, chest pain and superior vena cava syndrome due to the presence of the mediastinal mass.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The role of radiotherapy in the treatment of thymic NEC is controversial; however, it is recommended in order to prevent local recurrence of invasive tumors (5,6,18). Single-agent or combination drug chemotherapies, including 5-fluorouracil, streptozotocin, carmustine, cisplatin and etoposide, have been used without any significant effect on the recurrence rate and overall survival time of patients (11,19,20). However, although there is a limited effect on the long-term survival of patients, adjuvant chemotherapy may lead to mixed short-term survival times of patients.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Pancreatic metastasis resulting from thymic neuroendocrine carcinoma: A case report

Wang

Tang

et al. 2016

Oncology Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Thymic neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) is a rare type of cancer. Unlike other thymic epithelial tumors and carcinoids originating in other locations, thymic NEC possesses a more aggressive biological behavior, including invasion to proximal structures, local recurrence and distant hematogenous metastasis. Distant metastasis is often observed in the bones, lungs, spleen, liver and adrenal glands. However, pancreatic metastasis resulting from thymic NEC is extremely uncommon, and only a few cases of patients with this disease have been reported. The current study presents the case of a patient with pancreatic metastasis resulting from thymic NEC. The patient was admitted to hospital with an anterior mediastinal neoplasm, which was identified using chest enhanced computed tomography. The patient underwent a monobloc excision of the tumor with resection of involved structures. Subsequently, a pathological diagnosis of atypical thymic carcinoid was provided, according to the morphological characteristics observed and the expression of neuroendocrine markers, as identified by immunohistochemistry. Following surgery, the patient received adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, ~2 years after surgery, metastasis at the pancreatic head was identified. The patient underwent a total pancreatectomy and splenectomy, and did not receive any post-operative therapies; however, the patient succumbed to the disease 9 months following surgery. Overall, the results from the present study demonstrate the clinical features of thymic NEC, which may aid with the diagnosis of this rare disease in other patients.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pancreatic metastasis resulting from thymic neuroendocrine carcinoma: A case report

Wang

Tang

et al. 2016

Oncology Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They occur more often in men in their 4th or 5th decade of life [3][4][5]. Overonethirdofpatientsareasymptomatic,andthetumoris discovered on routine chest radiographs [15].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, patients may also present with endocrinopathies [3].About25%ofpatientspresentwithCushing'ssyndrome [5,6]. Two staging criteria are currently used, one described by Masaoka et al [16], and the other by Yamakawa et al [17].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, about200caseshavebeenreportedintheliterature,mostof thembeingcasereports.Previouslycalledthymiccarcinoids, they are now called TNCs due to their aggressive behavior, differentiatingthemfromothercarcinoidsofthebody.They arelocallyinvasiveandtendtometastasize [3].Themajority ofpatientsareintheir4thand5thdecadeoflifewithanap-proximately3:1maletofemaleratio [3][4][5].Innearlyhalfofall patients,aclinicallyapparentendocrinopathyispresent,with Cushing'ssyndrome(25%)andmultipleendocrineneoplasia type1(MEN1)(15%)beingthemostfrequent [5,6].Other paraneoplasticsyndromesarereportedoccasionally,andunlike other carcinoids arising from the gastrointestinal tract, only 0.6% are associated with carcinoid syndrome [7]. The mainstayoftreatmentissurgery,evenifcompleteresectionis notpossible [4,8,9].Theuseofradiotherapyorchemotherapeuticagentsiscontroversial.Theuseofsomatostatinanalogs suchasoctreotideasadjuvanttherapyhasbeenproposedin recentyearsandseemsapromisingapproach [10][11][12][13][14].Here, we report on a patient with TNC presenting with Cushing's syndrome, who was successfully treated with radical surgery followedbyradiotherapyandadministrationofoctreotide.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation