Solitary Hepatic Metastasis of Thymoma: A Case Report

INTRODUCTION: Hepatic recurrence of thymomas is uncommon and its surgical treatment has rarely been reported. We report the case of a patient who underwent surgical resection for a solitary liver metastasis of a thymoma. CASE PRESENTATION: A 61-year-old female presented with an abnormal shadow on chest radiography performed during a medical checkup. CT revealed an 85-mm mass in the anterior mediastinum, adjacent to the pericardium and the right upper and right middle lobes of the lung. The patient underwent total thymectomy, wedge resection of the upper and middle lobes of the right lung, and partial resection of the pericardium. Histopathology revealed a type B3 thymoma, classified as stage II according to the Masaoka staging system. An abdominal CT performed 18 months after the primary surgery revealed a 34-mm solid mass in the 6th liver segment. Wedge resection of the hepatic lesion was performed. Pathological examination revealed liver metastasis of a type B3 thymoma. No recurrence was observed during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The paucity of data on the surgical treatment of liver metastases from thymomas hinders the establishment of clear evidence-based guidelines for determining the indications for surgical intervention. Surgery appears to be the most appropriate treatment for solitary liver metastasis; however, the most efficacious treatment remains to be elucidated. It is necessary to accumulate more cases of patients who have undergone hepatectomy for liver metastasis of thymoma.