Successful Diagnosis of a Thymoma by Endobronchial Ultrasound-guided Transbronchial Needle Aspiration: A Report of Two Cases.

We herein report two cases of thymomas diagnosed by endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA). In both cases, the tumor was adjacent to the central airway. Therefore, we attempted to perform EBUS-TBNA in order to obtain specimens for a histopathological examination, which resulted in a diagnosis of thymoma. In one case, surgical resection was conducted and the histological evalu- ation of the resected specimen confirmed thymoma type AB, consistent with the histology from the EBUS- TBNA specimen. As a safe and minimally invasive procedure, EBUS-TBNA may be considered for the diag- nosis of mediastinal tumors, including thymoma.