Surgical therapy fur neuroendocrine tumors of the thymus

Neuroendocrine tumors of the thymus, also known as thymic carcinoids, are rare tumors of the anterior mediastinum. They occur sporadically or in association with the MEN I syndrome. We present five patients (four male, one female; age of first manifestation 19-53 years) who were operated on at our hospital between 1984 and 1995 for neuroendocrine thymic tumors. A hormone-producing tumor presented with Cushing's syndrome in two patients. Two patients had MEN I syndrome. Only in the female patient the primary tumor was confined to the thymus. We found lymph node metastases in three patients and a distant metastasis in one. The neuroendocrine tumors have a high rate of local recurrences and thus we performed 11 operations using a transthoracic or transsternal approach. Since there was no operative mortality and adjuvant therapies are of limited valuer we recommend surgery even in case of recurrence.