Thymic Carcinoma

Hello! Interesting case time - when thinking about mediastinal masses and tumors, the mnemonic that is commonly taught in medical school is:

THE FOUR T’S

Thymoma,

Teratoma,

"Terrible" lymphoma, and

Thyroid

In terms of pathologic diagnosis - thymic carcinomas are important to consider, but are a diagnosis of exclusion.

Histology: tumors will resemble carcinomas from other organs.

Subtypes include - squamous carcinoma, mucoepidermoid, adenosquamous, basaloid, poorly differentiated.

IHC - positive for CD117, CD5, keratin, p40/63