Definition
Thymolipoma is a benign tumor composed of normal thymus tissue and mature adipose tissue.
Half of the patients affected are asymptomatic, while the other half may present with symptoms attributable to mass effect, such as dyspnea, chest pain, coughing, hoarseness, and cyanosis. However, these tumors are often discovered incidentally by means of chest imaging done for unrelated causes.
Some patients may have associated myasthenia gravis.
CT and MRI scans show an anterior mediastinal mass and may highlight the presence of fat in the tumor.
Clinical Features
Incidence
Thymolipoma is a rare tumor accounting from 2% to 9% of all thymic tumors, with a reported incidence of 0.12/100,000 people.
Age
It can occur in any age, although it is more discovered in the third or fourth decade of life.
Sex
No gender predilection.
Site
It almost exclusively occurs in the anterior mediastinum.
Treatment
Treatment is surgical resection.
Outcome
Prognosis is excellent.
Macroscopy
Thymolipoma...
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Damadoglu, E., Salturk, C., Takir, H. B., Ertugrul, M., Yilmaz, A., Atasalihi, A., & Yilmaz, A. (2007). Mediastinal thymolipoma: An analysis of 10 cases. Respirology, 12(6), 924–927.
Moran, C. A., Rosado-de Christenson, M., & Suster. (1995). Thymolipoma: Clinicopathologic review of 33 cases. Modern Pathology, 8, 741–744.
Rosado-de-Christenson, M. L., Pugatch, R. D., Moran, C. A., & Galobardes, J. (1994). Thymolipoma: Analysis of 27 cases. Radiology, 193, 121–126.
Travis, W.D. et al. (2004). Tumours of the thymus. In Pathology and genetics of tumours of the lung, pleura, thymus and heart (pp. 145–247). IARC Press, Lyon.
Weissferdt, A., & Moran, C. A. (2014). Lipomatous tumors of the anterior mediastinum with muscle differentiation: A clinicopathological and immunohistochemical study of three cases. Virchows Archiv, 464(4), 489–493.
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De Pellegrin, A. (2018). Thymolipoma. In: Allen, T.C., Suster, S. (eds) Pathology of the Pleura and Mediastinum. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66796-6_58
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66796-6_58
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