Shoji Ohtsuka

Expandable Metallic Stents for Tracheobronchial Stenoses in Esophageal Cancer

BACKGROUND Tracheobronchial stenosis in patients with esophageal cancer can be life threatening. Few reports have discussed use of expandable metallic stents for central airway stenoses in patients with esophageal cancer. METHODS Twelve patients with esophageal cancer underwent placement of expandable metallic stents for respiratory distress caused by tracheobronchial stricture. Single or double metallic stents were placed in the stenotic airways under fluoroscopic guidance. Improvement in respiratory symptoms and clinical outcome were assessed. RESULTS Most stenoses were located in the trachea or the left main bronchus. From one to four expandable metallic stents were placed in each stricture site, with immediate relief of respiratory symptoms in 8 patients. One patient with tracheomalacia in alive 3 years after stent placement and another is alive 6 months after stent insertion. The other 10 patients lived from 10 to 70 days (mean; survival, 35 days) after stent placement. Death was due to progression of disease. CONCLUSIONS Although metallic stents are useful for relieving respiratory distress in patients with advanced esophageal cancer, additional therapies should be considered.

Thymolipoma Associated with Myasthenia Gravis

In a 29-year-old woman with myasthenia gravis and no visible mediastinal mass, the resected thymus was found to contain a small thymolipoma. Relief of the neuromuscular symptoms followed thymectomy. A very small thymolipoma may be associated with myasthenia gravis even if the content of though thymic tissue is low.

Thymic basaloid carcinoma with hepatic metastasis

A thymic basaloid carcinoma is rare, as is an unusual case with extra-thoracic metastasis. We report on a 41-year-old woman who had a thymic basaloid carcinoma with liver metastases. The patient underwent resection of the thymic basaloid carcinoma followed by curative partial hepatectomy. At 1 year later, another metastatic lesion developed in the residual liver, which was also curatively resected. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient is surviving without recurrence for 12 months, to date.

Endobronchial metastasis from rectal adenocarcinoma: report of a case.

We herein report a case of late endobronchial metastasis after the resection of a primary rectal adenocarcinoma. A 51-year-old man underwent a resection of rectal adenocarcinoma. Five years postoperatively, he underwent a right sleeve upper lobectomy for a right endobronchial tumor. The resected tumor was diagnosed to be endobronchial metastasis from rectal adenocarcinoma. Therefore, the relationship between the two tumors was analyzed using deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) flow cytometry and immunohistochemical staining. Endobronchial adenocarcinoma had strong homogeneous staining patterns and identical biochemical characteristics to rectal adenocarcinoma.