Thymoma within a giant congenital thymic cyst

Abstract

Congenital thymic cysts are very rare and mostly asymptomatic mediastinal lesions. Thymoma within such cysts is even more uncommon and has so far hardly been described. We report on a 41-year-old male with a World Health Organization type B1 thymoma within the wall of a huge unilocular thymic cyst. Because of the possible coexistence of typical congenital thymic cyst and thymoma, we recommend surgical resection both for establishing the diagnosis and for definite treatment. © 2011 Published by European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.