Multiple thymic carcinoids: A case report

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Background Thymic carcinoids are rare neuroendocrine tumors with a relatively poor prognosis due to their aggressive nature. The occurrence of multiple, concurrent thymic carcinoids is extremely rare. Case Presentation A 36-year-old male was referred to our hospital with left-sided chest pain. Chest radiograph revealed an abnormal shadow, and computed tomography (CT) of the chest revealed two tumors in the anterior mediastinum. The patient underwent complete surgical resection. Histopathological examination revealed that one tumor was a typical carcinoid and the other was an atypical carcinoid. Postoperative positron emission tomography-CT showed no evidence of lymph node or distant metastasis or any additional lesions. The final diagnosis was multiple thymic carcinoids, one typical and one atypical, both classified as pT1aN0M0, stage I, Masaoka-Koga stage IIb. Postoperative radiotherapy was administered. The patient has remained recurrence-free for 3 months after surgery. Conclusion We report a rare case of multiple thymic carcinoids of both typical and atypical subtypes. This case suggests possible multicentric tumorigenesis and highlights the biological heterogeneity of thymic neuroendocrine tumors.