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Case reports

Recurrent thymoma with a pleural dissemination invading the intervertebral foramen

Department of Thoracic, Endocrine Surgery and Oncology, Institute of Health Bioscience, the University of Tokushima, Kuramoto-cho 3-18-15, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan

Received 5 November 2008; received in revised form 16 January 2009; accepted 22 January 2009.

^_* Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 88 633 7143; fax: +81 88 633 7144. (Email: kondo{at}clin.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp).

We report a rare case of recurrent thymoma with pleural dissemination invading the intervertebral foramen. A woman with Masaoka's stage IVa thymoma with myasthenia gravis (MG) underwent macroscopically complete resection. After 45 months, she developed back pain. Computed tomography (CT) of the chest demonstrated a mass in the right thoracic cavity invading the intervertebral foramen between thoracic vertebrae 10 and 11. She underwent complete resection of the tumor and postoperative radiotherapy. The resected specimen was histologically diagnosed as a pleural dissemination from thymoma. There has been no local recurrence.

Key Words: Thymoma • Pleura • Reoperation