A Case Report of Ectopic Cervical Thymoma: A New Approach for a Preoperative Diagnosis

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We report an unusual case of ectopic cervical thymoma. A 35-year-old female patient presented with an anterior neck mass that developed over a five-month duration. The patient underwent fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) twice, but the tumor type could not be diagnosed. The surgically removed tumor was white in color and had a smooth surface. According to the postoperative pathological examination, the tumor was diagnosed as a Stage I ectopic cervical thymoma and Type B1 according to the Masaoka staging system and the World Health Organization (WHO) histological staging system, respectively. The patient was in good overall health and remained without tumor recurrence at the time of the 10-month follow-up. Because it was difficult to make a preoperative definite diagnosis by FNAC for the thymoma, we constructed a cell block from the existing cytological specimen. Immunohistological staining using the cell-block method clearly demonstrated the biphasic cellular population pattern that is a characteristic of thymoma. Therefore, this method may be useful as a preoperative differential diagnostic modality for cervical thymomas.