Thymic tumor

Yu Shin Hung*, Chen Ling Chang, Hung Chang, Chang Hsien Lu, Ping Tsung Chen, Wen Chi Chou

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Thymic tumor arises from the epithelial cells of the thymus. It is an uncommon malignancy comprising 0.2-1.5% of all malignancies, and 90% of them occur in the anterior mediastinum. Approximately 150 patients were diagnosed in Taiwan every year; the indicience was 0.63 cases per 100,000 populations. Thymic tumors are broadly classified into thymoma and thymic carcinoma. Thymoma is an indolent tumor of local invasion to pleural cavity potential. More than half of all patients are asymptomatic at the diagnoses. One third to half of patients present with symptoms related to paraneoplastic syndrome. The most common ones are myathensia gravis, pure red cell aplasia and hypogammaglonulinemia. In contrast to thymoma, thymic carcinoma is more malignant and carrier early distant metastases potential, and more than 80% of patients are symptomatic at the time of presentation. Paraneoplastic syndromes are uncommon in thymic carcinoma. The Masaoka staging system and WHO morphological classification are the most commonly used systems to assess prognoses of the thymic tumors. Complete surgical resection is the most important prognostic factor, but difficult to achieve in locally advanced thymic tumors. The multimodality therapy combining neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery and post-operative radiotherapy is by far the best treatment for locally advanced thymic tumors to date.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)344-351
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Internal Medicine of Taiwan
Volume20
Issue number4
StatePublished - 08 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Paraneoplastic syndrome
  • Thymic carcinoma
  • Thymoma

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