The spectrum of sebaceous differentiation in tumors of thymic origin.

Sebaceous differentiation is an unexpected and unusual phenomenon in the normal thymic gland. Among thymic tumors, sebaceous glands are a relatively common component of mediastinal teratomas but are exceedingly rare in other neoplasms of thymic origin. This review explores the spectrum of non-teratomatous thymic tumors in which sebaceous differentiation has been identified, discusses the potential histogenesis and evaluates the effects of this occurrence on diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.