Surgical treatment is effective in treating thymoma accompanied with non-myasthenia gravis autoimmune diseases: a single-center clinical experience

Abstract

Background and Aims: Although thymoma is inextricably linked to autoimmune disease, its best treatment method remains unclear. In this study, we sought to evaluate therapeutic effect of surgical resection of thymoma on non-myasthenia gravis autoimmune diseases. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study covering 32 patients with thymoma accompanied with non-myasthenia gravis autoimmune disease. The relationships between surgical treatment, thymoma pathological type, and prognosis of autoimmune diseases were analyzed from postoperative follow-up data. Results: In total, 32 patients in this study underwent surgical treatment. The mean age of the patients was 51.7 years. By the last follow-up, 2 patients had died, while the other 30 patients showed no sign of tumor recurrence and metastasis. According to the postoperative follow-up data, 22 patients (68.75%) showed improvement or even complete recovery of autoimmune disease symptoms, 9 patients (28.13%) showed no significant change, and only 1 patient’s (3.12%) postoperative symptom was aggravated. Female patients and patients aged 50 and older were more likely to combine with non-organ-specific autoimmune diseases (p = 0.036, p = 0.017). Conclusion: In conclusion, this study presents that surgical treatment achieves a satisfactory prognosis for thymoma combined with non-myasthenia gravis autoimmune disease.

The 100 most cited papers on thymoma: a bibliometric analysis

“…In addition, immune disease-related words such as systemic-lupus-erythematosus, lichen-planus, t-cells, and red-cell aplasia also appeared in the top 100 keywords, and according to VOSviewer cluster analysis, the frequency of such words has gradually increased in recent years. Our team has also found that surgery has a certain effect on treating non-myasthenia Gravis autoimmune diseases [21]. Similarly, laboratory research on thymoma has gradually increased in recent years, and since 2000, the number of highly cited laboratory studies on thymoma has gradually increased.…”

Clinical and Genetic Characteristics of Thymoma Patients With Autoimmune Hepatitis and Myocarditis

“…Previous studies have shown that many autoimmune diseases, such as Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Isaac's syndrome, and Morvan syndrome were caused by thymoma (9). Sometimes, surgical treatment might result in good prognosis of thymoma combined with nonmyasthenia gravis autoimmune diseases (10)(11)(12)(13). Here, we report the clinical and genetic characteristics of 13 special thymoma patients with autoimmune hepatitis and myocarditis.…”

Hide-and-Seek With Spindle-Cell-Component-Poor Metaplastic Thymoma

“…Paraneoplastic psoriasis has only been described in a couple of cases regarding thymic tumors [ 7 - 8 ]. The prototypical paraneoplastic syndrome associated with thymoma is myasthenia gravis (MG), with occurrence of 30%-50% in thymoma patients generally [ 9 ].…”