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Immunooncol Technol 2019 Oct 16;3:8-14. Epub 2019 Sep 16.

Head of the Thoracic Oncology Program, Institut du Thorax Curie-Montsouris, Institut Curie, Paris, France.

Thymic malignancies are rare mediastinal cancers, classified according to the World Health Organization's histopathologic classification which distinguishes thymomas from thymic carcinomas. One key consideration when discussing immunotherapy for thymic epithelial tumors is that one-third of patients diagnosed with thymomas present at the time of diagnosis with autoimmune disorders, the most common being myasthenia gravis. The first step in the understanding of autoimmunity in thymic epithelial tumors is to distinguish true autoimmune disorders from paraneoplastic syndromes; besides pathophysiology, clinical correlates, impact on oncological management and survival may differ strongly. Read More

Oncologist 2022 Jun 24. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

Foundation Medicine, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Background: Thymic malignancies represent a heterogeneous group of rare thoracic cancers, which are classified according to the World Health Organization histopathologic classification, that distinguishes thymomas from thymic carcinomas. Data regarding the biology of those tumors are limited in the literature, and the vast majority have been obtained using surgical specimens from early-stage disease. Meanwhile, treatment of advanced, refractory thymic tumors currently relies on chemotherapy, with limited efficacy. Read More

Diagnostics (Basel) 2022 May 27;12(6). Epub 2022 May 27.

Nuclear Medicine Unit, TracerGLab, Department of Radiology, Radiotherapy and Hematology, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy.

Radiomics is an upcoming field in nuclear oncology, both promising and technically challenging. To summarize the already undertaken work on supradiaphragmatic neoplasia and assess its quality, we performed a literature search in the PubMed database up to 18 February 2022. Inclusion criteria were: studies based on human data; at least one specified tumor type; supradiaphragmatic malignancy; performing radiomics on PET imaging. Read More

Metabolites 2022 Jun 20;12(6). Epub 2022 Jun 20.

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150086, China.

Thymomas and thymic carcinomas are malignant thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) with poor outcomes if non-resectable. However, the tumorigenesis, especially the metabolic mechanisms involved, is poorly studied. Untargeted metabolomics analysis was utilized to screen for differential metabolic profiles between thymic cancerous tissues and adjunct noncancerous tissues. Read More

Front Oncol 2022 6;12:847957. Epub 2022 Jun 6.

The Key Laboratory, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, China.

Objective: To describe the clinical features of a cohort of patients with thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) and to analyze their prognostic factors. In particular, we investigated the correlation between the genetic polymorphism of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase () C667T and the incidence of TETs.

Methods: Pathological records were reviewed from the database of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, from January 2010 to December 2020, and 84 patients with TETs were recruited for this study. Read More

Int Med Case Rep J 2022 15;15:293-298. Epub 2022 Jun 15.

Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Padjadjaran - Dr. Hasan Sadikin Hospital, Bandung, Indonesia.

Cutaneous metastases (CM) are neoplastic lesions of the skin originating from a primary tumor elsewhere. CM originating from primary thymic carcinoma is rare, and its incidence remains uncertain. A case of CM from thymic carcinoma in a 57-year-old man was reported. Read More

BMC Pulm Med 2022 Jun 22;22(1):242. Epub 2022 Jun 22.

Department of Clinical Investigation, National Hospital Organization Kochi Hospital, 1-2-25 Asakuranishimachi, Kochi, 780-8077, Japan.

Background: The prognosis of thymoma with cardiac tamponade is generally poor. Most of the reported thymomas with cardiac tamponade were type B or type AB (mixed thymoma), and cardiac tamponade due to type A thymoma, which has a better prognosis compared to type B thymoma, is extremely rare.

Case Presentation: We encountered a case of cardiac tamponade in a 71-year-old male. Read More

Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg 2022 Jun 20. Epub 2022 Jun 20.

Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Tor Vergata University Polyclinic, Rome, Italy.

Objectives: Thymomectomy is gaining consensus over complete thymectomy in early-stage thymoma without myasthenia gravis. This is due both to the difficulty of establishing prospective and randomized controlled studies and to the lack of well defined selection criteria. This bicentric, retrospective propensity-score matched study aims at comparing oncological outcomes, measured in terms of overall survival and thymoma-related survival, in patients undergoing either thymomectomy or complete thymectomy. Read More

Thorac Cancer 2022 Jun 18. Epub 2022 Jun 18.

Department of Oncology, Immunology and Surgery, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan.

Background: Recent studies have shown that several systemic inflammatory markers and the nutrition status, including the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and prognostic nutritional index (PNI), are useful prognostic factors in several malignant tumors. The present study explored the prognostic value of the NLR, MLR, PLR, and PNI in thymic epithelial tumor (TET) patients who underwent complete resection.

Methods: A total of 158 TET patients who underwent complete resection were involved in the analysis. Read More

Adv Sci (Weinh) 2022 Jun 16:e2201496. Epub 2022 Jun 16.

State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Protein Sciences, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, P. R. China.

Therapeutic tumor neoantigen vaccines have been widely studied given their good safety profile and ability to avoid central thymic tolerance. However, targeting antigen-presenting cells (APCs) and inducing robust neoantigen-specific cellular immunity remain challenges. Here, a safe and broad-spectrum neoantigen vaccine delivery system is proposed (GP-Neoantigen) based on β-1,3-glucan particles (GPs) derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and coupling peptide antigens with GPs through convenient click chemistry. Read More

Intern Med 2022 Jun 14. Epub 2022 Jun 14.

Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Japan.

The precise manipulation of immune tolerance is the holy grail of immunotherapies for both autoimmunity and cancer immunity. Thymomas are well known to be associated with autoimmune diseases. The exact mechanism by which autoreactivity is induced after thymectomy remains to be elucidated. Read More

Endocrine 2022 Jun 13. Epub 2022 Jun 13.

Medical Research Center Oulu, Oulu University Hospital, Research Unit of Internal Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.

Objective: MEN1 is associated with an increased risk of developing tumors in different endocrine organs. Neuroendocrine tumors of the thymus (TNETs) are very rare but often have an aggressive nature. We evaluated patients with MEN1 and TNET in three university hospitals in Finland. Read More

J Thorac Dis 2022 May;14(5):1342-1352

Department of Radiology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan.

Background: The purpose of our study was to differentiate between thymoma and thymic carcinoma using a radiomics analysis based on the computed tomography (CT) image features.

Methods: The CT images of 61 patients with thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) who underwent contrast-enhanced CT with slice thickness <1 mm were analyzed. Pathological examination of the surgical specimens revealed thymoma in 45 and thymic carcinoma in 16. Read More

Am J Cancer Res 2022 15;12(5):2387-2396. Epub 2022 May 15.

Department of Medical Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine Guangzhou 510050, Guangdong, China.

Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are one of the rarest adult malignancies in the anterior mediastinum. Thymic carcinomas (TCs) are less prevalent among TETs, but they are more clinically aggressive. Immunotherapy has emerged as a promising therapeutic approach for refractory TETs, even though chemotherapy remains the conventional treatment for the advanced disease. Read More

BMC Surg 2022 Jun 11;22(1):226. Epub 2022 Jun 11.

Department of Thoracic Surgery, University Medical Center Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.

Background: Ectopic Cushing syndrome (ECS) is a sporadic condition. Even uncommon is an ECS that derives from a carcinoid tumor of the thymus. These tumors may pose several diagnostic and therapeutic conundrums. Read More

Med Trop Sante Int 2021 12 11;1(4). Epub 2021 Nov 11.

CHU Yalgado Ouédraogo de Ouagadougou, Unité de formation et de recherches des sciences de la santé, Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Introduction: Certain differences in the epidemiological, clinical, paraclinical and evolution profiles of autoimmune myasthenia gravis (AIMG) are increasingly described in patients according to geographic origins. The present study was carried out in order to help characterize the socio-demographic, clinical and paraclinical profile of AIMG in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Patients And Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive, multicenter, hospital study carried out in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), over a period of 5 years 6 months, from March 2015 to September 2019. Read More

Cancers (Basel) 2022 May 29;14(11). Epub 2022 May 29.

Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, USA.

Positron emission tomography combined with x-ray computed tomography (PET-CT) is an advanced imaging modality with oncologic applications that include staging, therapy assessment, restaging, and surveillance. This six-part series of review articles provides practical information to providers and imaging professionals regarding the best use of PET-CT for the more common adult malignancies. The second article of this series addresses primary thoracic malignancy and breast cancer. Read More

Cancers (Basel) 2022 May 24;14(11). Epub 2022 May 24.

Regional Center of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Translational Research and New Technology in Medicine, University of Pisa and Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Pisana, 56126 Pisa, Italy.

Aim: to exploit tissue-specific interactions among thymic epithelial tumor (TETs) cells and extra-domain B fibronectin (ED-B FN).

Material And Methods: The stromal pattern of ED-B FN expression was investigated through tumor specimen collection and molecular profiling in 11 patients with recurrent TETs enrolled in prospective theragnostic phase I/II trials with Radretumab, an ED-B FN specific recombinant human antibody. Radretumab radioimmunotherapy (R-RIT) was offered to patients who exhibited the target expression. Read More

Aging (Albany NY) 2022 Jun 8;14(11):4769-4785. Epub 2022 Jun 8.

School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, P.R. China.

Zhenqi Fuzheng formula (ZQFZ), of which the main ingredients are and , has immune system regulatory functions and potential anti-tumor bioactivity. The inhibition of colorectal tumor growth by ZQFZ was analyzed in inflammatory cells and B6/JGpt-/Gpt () mice. ZQFZ exhibited anti-inflammatory activity by decreasing the phosphorylation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway-related proteins in lipopolysaccharide-induced RAW264. Read More

Obstet Gynecol 2022 Jun 2;139(6):1003-1008. Epub 2022 May 2.

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Texas.

The evolution of continuous electronic fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring has presented the obstetrician with a critical clinical conundrum: basic science observations suggest that such monitoring might be associated with improved long-term neurologic outcomes, yet, after a half century of use and millions of cesarean deliveries based on FHR monitoring, evidence for such improvement remains absent. This dichotomy appears to be related to widespread misconceptions regarding the physiology underlying various FHR patterns and the developmental origins of cerebral palsy. These misconceptions are strengthened by a reliance on anecdotal experience and tradition in lieu of evidence-based medicine, the confusing "category II" FHR designation, medical-legal considerations, and our tendency to view fetal monitoring, as originally conceptualized, as a single, indivisible entity whose concepts must be accepted or rejected en bloc. Read More

Clin Nucl Med 2022 Jul 27;47(7):590-598. Epub 2022 Apr 27.

From the Departments of Nuclear Medicine.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to develop a deep learning (DL)-based segmentation algorithm for automatic measurement of metabolic parameters of 18F-FDG PET/CT in thymic epithelial tumors (TETs), comparable performance to manual volumes of interest.

Patients And Methods: A total of 186 consecutive patients with resectable TETs and preoperative 18F-FDG PET/CT were retrospectively enrolled (145 thymomas, 41 thymic carcinomas). A quasi-3D U-net architecture was trained to resemble ground-truth volumes of interest. Read More

Aging (Albany NY) 2022 Jun 7;14(11):4739-4754. Epub 2022 Jun 7.

Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China.

Introduction: Immune microenvironment and microRNAs serve as common predictors for diagnosis and prognosis of tumors.

Methods: Expression of 122 genes and 126 microRNAs in thymoma was obtained from TCGA database. The proportion of tumor-infiltrating cells was calculated, and IMRS was constructed. Read More

Pediatr Radiol 2022 Jun 8. Epub 2022 Jun 8.

Department of Radiology, Akron Children's Hospital, One Perkins Square, Akron, OH, 44308, USA.

Mediastinal masses are categorized based on the International Thymic Malignancy Interest Group (ITMIG) classification into prevascular, visceral and paravertebral compartments. The schema is based on cross-sectional imaging, mainly CT, and helps with generating a differential diagnosis based on location of the mass. Up to half of all pediatric mediastinal tumors are malignant. Read More

Zhonghua Bing Li Xue Za Zhi 2022 Jun;51(6):512-517

Department of Pathology, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100029, China.

To investigate the clinical, pathologic and radiologic features and molecular alterations in patients with primary cardiac leiomyosarcoma (PCLMS). Five cases of PCLMS were collected in Beijing Anzhen Hospital from January 2016 to December 2020. The clinical, pathologic and radiologic data, and molecular alterations were analyzed, and the patients were followed up. Read More

Orphanet J Rare Dis 2022 06 6;17(1):215. Epub 2022 Jun 6.

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, No. 1, Shuaifuyuan, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100730, China.

Background: Thymic neuroendocrine tumors comprise a heterogeneous group of rare diseases. This study aimed to investigate the real-world clinicopathological features and treatment outcomes of thymic neuroendocrine tumors.

Results: A total of 104 patients diagnosed with thymic neuroendocrine tumors in a single institution from 1983 to 2021 were eligible. Read More

BMJ Case Rep 2022 Jun 6;15(6). Epub 2022 Jun 6.

Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

Giant cell myositis (GCM) is a rare inflammatory myopathy associated with myasthenia gravis and thymoma. Here, we report on a woman in her late 50s with a history of myasthenia gravis, systemic lupus erythematosus and stage IV thymoma with pleural metastases, who presented with proximal weakness, neuromuscular respiratory failure and hypercalcaemia. She was diagnosed with GCM via muscle biopsy and screened for myocarditis but showed no evidence of myocardial involvement. Read More

J Exp Med 2022 07 3;219(7). Epub 2022 Jun 3.

Center for Cancer Immunology and Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.

Cancer immunology research is largely focused on the role of cytotoxic immune responses against advanced cancers. Herein, we demonstrate that CD4+ T helper (Th2) cells directly block spontaneous breast carcinogenesis by inducing the terminal differentiation of the cancer cells. Th2 cell immunity, stimulated by thymic stromal lymphopoietin, caused the epigenetic reprogramming of the tumor cells, activating mammary gland differentiation and suppressing epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Read More

Front Oncol 2022 13;12:869982. Epub 2022 May 13.

Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

Objective: To investigate the differential diagnostic performance of computed tomography (CT)-based radiomics in thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) and lymphomas in anterior mediastinum.

Methods: There were 149 patients with TETs and 93 patients with lymphomas enrolled. These patients were assigned to a training set (n = 171) and an external validation set (n = 71). Read More

Medicina (B Aires) 2022 ;82(3):376-382

Servicio de Patología, Hospital Británico, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Thymic epithelial tumors are a group of rare neoplasms of the mediastinum. When resectable, complete resection is considered the gold standard for any stage. The primary endpoint was to evaluate overall survival and disease-free survival of patients with thymus epithelial tumors who underwent surgical treatment. Read More