Thymic Well Differentiated Neuroendocrine Carcinoma (Carcinoid and Atypical Carcinoid)
Grading / Staging
Grading
- By definition, all are well differentiated
- Nearly all thymic carcinoids qualify as atypical carcinoids (using lung criteria) based on an elevated mitotic rate and the presence of necrosis
Staging
- The same TNM proposed for thymomas has been proposed for thymic neuroendocrine carcinomas:
| pT | |
|---|---|
| pT1 | Completely encapsulated |
| pT2 | Invades through capsule into fat or normal thymus, but not through pleura or pericardium (may be adherent) or into adjacent organs |
| pT3 | Invades through pleura or pericardium or into adjacent organs (great vessels, lung) |
| pT4 | Pleural or pericardial implants |
| pN | |
| pN1 | Metastasis only to anterior mediastinal nodes |
| pN2 | Metastasis to other intrathoracic nodes |
| pN3 | Metastasis to extrathoracic nodes |
| pM | |
| pM1 | With distant metastases |
- From Tsuchiya et al. Pathol Int 1994; 44:506
