Dissolution of metastatic thymic carcinoma–associated right atrial thrombus with rivaroxaban

Abstract

Thymic carcinoma typically exhibits more clinically aggressive behavior and portends a worse prognosis as compared to thymoma. Venous thromboembolism is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in oncologic patients. Traditionally, the standard-of-care management of cancer-associated venous thromboembolism has been therapeutic anticoagulation with low molecular weight heparins; however, with the advent of direct oral anticoagulants, there is an ongoing paradigm shift to transition to these novel agents in an attempt to attenuate cancer-associated venous thromboembolism events. We describe an exceedingly rare case of metastatic thymic carcinoma–associated right atrial thrombus with high-risk embolic features, which subsequently underwent near-complete dissolution with rivaroxaban after 3 months.