Primary cavernous hemangioma of the thyroid mimicking an ectopic cervical thymoma

Abstract

Hemangiomas are one of the most common soft tissue tumors, most of which are located in the skin and subcutaneous tissue. However, a primary thyroid hemangioma is extremely infrequent, so there are only a few cases described in the current literature. As the clinical presentation and characteristics in the imaging tests are non-specific, it is difficult to obtain a preoperative diagnosis. In most cases, the definitive diagnosis is achieved by the histological examination. Due to the rarity of this tumor, we described the case of a 51-year-old female patient affected by thyroid cavernous hemangioma, the differential diagnosis that we considered and a review of the current literature.

Ectopic cervical thymoma: a rare entity in the anterior neck

“…Due to its low frequency, diagnosing ECT can be challenging, as its histological characteristics are similar to mediastinal/thymic thymomas. Fine needle aspiration cytology or frozen section examination may lead to a diagnostic pitfall, as it could suggest a lymphomatous process or undifferentiated carcinoma, depending on the predominance of lymphocytes and inconspicuous epithelial cells [ 5 , 6 ]. Immunohistochemistry remains crucial for tissue diagnosis, while cytology is often less useful.…”

“…Patients with involvement of neck lymph nodes or extrathyroidal extension may be considered for adjuvant radiation therapy. In cases where there is capsular invasion in ectopic thymomas, it is crucial to administer adjuvant radiotherapy to decrease the likelihood of local recurrence, similar to the approach taken with mediastinal thymomas [ 5 ].…”