Key result
Radiotherapy followed by maintenance chemotherapy markedly shrank the mediastinal seminoma and resolved the patient's neck swelling.
Case Report (n=1)
Superior vena cava syndrome due to mediastinal seminoma can present as afebrile, painless cervical swelling and responds to radiotherapy.
May inform differential for afebrile neck swelling; leaves open optimal regimens in larger cohorts.
Superior vena cava syndrome occurs when the superior vena cava and subsequent collateral veins of the thorax, neck, and head are obstructed, most commonly by a malignant neoplasm such as lung cancer. We discuss a case due to seminoma. A 31-year-old man referred for further recurrent facial and neck swelling examination, was found in chest radiography to have an abnormal shadow and shown in computed tomography (CT) scan to be a large mass of the anterior mediastinum diagnosed by aspiration cytology as seminoma. After radiotherapy, the tumor shrank markedly and neck swelling disappeared. The man underwent chemotherapy for maintenance after radiotherapy. Although commonly encountered by pulmonary physicians and surgeons superior vena cava syndrome is rarely seen by otolaryngologists who should consider this disease in subjects reporting afebrile, painless cervical swelling.
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Yoshifuku et al. (2010) conducted a case report in Mediastinal seminoma with superior vena cava syndrome (n=1). Radiotherapy and chemotherapy was evaluated on Tumor shrinkage and symptom resolution. Radiotherapy followed by maintenance chemotherapy markedly shrank the mediastinal seminoma and resolved the patient's neck swelling.
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