Fatal course of a benign mediastinal lipoblastoma in a 20-year-old woman.

Lipoblastoma is a rare benign, but highly proliferative tumor most commonly seen in early childhood. Recurrence rates are high when complete resection is unfeasible and systemic therapy is necessary. We report the case of a large, aggressive thoracic and mediastinal lipoblastoma in a 20-year-old woman, which was surgically not resectable. The tumor has been characterized extensively including molecular pathology, molecular karyotyping, conventional chromosomal analysis and in vitro-chemosensitivity testing in search for alternative therapies. Nevertheless, this did not reveal treatable targets and systemic therapies, which were based on chemosensitivity testing proved ineffective. Despite all treatment attempts, the disease showed a progressive fatal course.