[A case of thymic cyst with thymic hyperplasia].

A 70-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for treatment of an anterior mediastinal tumor. Although he was asymptomatic, an abnormal shadow was visible on chest radiography. CT revealed a heterogeneous tumor located in the anterior mediastinum. On MRI, the tumor demonstrated low signal intensity in T1-weighted images and high signal intensity in T2-weighted images. Laboratory data, including tumor markers, were mostly within the reference ranges. Although a CT-guided needle biopsy was performed, histologic diagnosis could not be confirmed. We resected the tumor with the thymus by median sternotomy. Histopathological examination demonstrated that the tumor was a multilocular thymic cyst with thymic hyperplasia and numerous lymphocytes. The lining epithelial cells gave positive reactions to immunohistochemical staining for carbohydrate antigen 19-9. Carcinoembryonic antigen and squamous cell carcinoma antigen levels in the cystic fluid were elevated. This case appeared to be an acquired thymic cyst with thymic hyperplasia. There are few reports of such cysts.