• Evaluation of the prognostic factors after thymoma resection.

• Expression of the MTA1 mRNA in thymoma patients.

• Loss of cytomegalovirus-specific immunological memory in a patient with thymoma.

• Cancer-associated retinopathy associated with invasive thymoma.

• Reoperation combined with intraoperative hyperthermic intrathoracic perfusion chemotherapy for pleural recurrence of thymoma.

• IFN-alpha super-induction of HLA class I expression by a variant thymoma cell line involves nuclear translocation of Rel complexes.

• Thymoma associated with pure red-cell aplasia: clinical features and prognosis.

• [Thymic carcinoma]

• Detection of Epstein-Barr virus genome within thymic epithelial tumours in Taiwanese patients by nested PCR, PCR in situ hybridization, and RNA

• Neuromyotonia and myasthenia gravis without thymoma.

• Gene expression analysis of human thymoma correlates with tumor stage.

1
UI - 11918233
AU - Matsushima S; Yamamoto H; Egami K; Suzuki S; Tanaka S
TI - Evaluation of the prognostic factors after thymoma resection.
SO - Int Surg 2001 Apr-Jun;86(2):103-6
AD - Department of Surgery, TamaNagayama Hospital, Nippon Medical School, Tama City, Tokyo, Japan.
We discuss the prognostic factors of thymoma clinicopathologically. Regarding the survival rate by the clinical stage classification of Masaoka, significant correlation was made between stage I and stage III (P < 0.05) and stage I and stage IVa (P < 0.03). The tumor resectability was classified into complete and incomplete resection, and a significant difference was shown by the survival rate of the complete resection at P < 0.0001. Regarding the survival rate by the invasive organ of the tumor, significant correlation was made between no invasion and the great vessel invasion (P < 0.0004) and between invasion except for the great vessel and great vessel invasion (P < 0.004). As for the histological type, the tendency in which the epithelial cell type predominancy increased with the progress of the clinical stage was shown. A significant correlation was not shown in the evaluation by adjuvant therapy. However, recently we have done chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy periodically for invasive thymoma.

2
UI - 11689291
AU - Sasaki H; Yukiue H; Kobayashi Y; Nakashima Y; Kaji M; Fukai I; Kiriyama
TI - M; Yamakawa Y; Fujii Y Expression of the MTA1 mRNA in thymoma patients.
SO - Cancer Lett 2001 Dec 28;174(2):159-63
AD - Department of Surgery II, Nagoya City University Medical School, 1 Kawasumi, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8601, Japan. hisasaki@med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
The MTA1 gene is a recently identified metastasis-associated gene which has been implicated in the signal transduction or regulation of gene expression. We examined the mRNA expression levels of the MTA1, the human homologue of the rat mta1 gene in thymoma. Expression of MTA1 mRNA was evaluated by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in 30 thymoma samples using LightCycler. The data was analyzed in reference to clinicopathological data. There was no relationship between MTA1 gene expression and age and gender. MTA1/GAPDH mRNA level in stage IV thymoma (6.431+/-3.404) was significantly higher than the level in stage I thymoma (2.592+/-1.902, P=0.0081). There was a tendency towards higher MTA1/GAPDH mRNA level in stage IV thymoma when compared to stage II thymoma (3.746+/-3.292, P=0.072). Thus our results show that the expression of the MTA1 gene is closely related to invasiveness in thymoma. The gene MTA1 could potentially provide information on the mechanism of tumor invasion and metastasis.

3
UI - 12165086
AU - Huissoon AP; Davies G; Cox RA; Sloper CM; Thomson BJ; Robins RA
TI - Loss of cytomegalovirus-specific immunological memory in a patient with thymoma.
SO - Clin Exp Immunol 2002 Aug;129(2):297-301
AD - Department of Immunology, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham. Huissoa@heartsol.wmids.nhs.uk
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis is a re-activation infection associated with severely impaired T cell-mediated immunity. We describe a patient with long-standing Crohn's disease and thymoma who developed severe CMV retinitis. While thymoma can be associated with impaired humoral immunity and a quantitative CD4+ T helper cell deficiency, these were not evident in our patient. However, more detailed investigation of anti-CMV responses showed absence of specific T cell responses to CMV antigen. Normal CMV seropositive controls have detectable proliferation and interferon-gamma production by T cells in response to stimulation with CMV antigen, but this was absent in this patient both during the acute infection and in convalescence. Other measures of T cell function were normal. Since CMV retinitis is due to reactivation of latent CMV infection, it appears that selective loss of CMV-specific immunity had occurred, perhaps secondary to a thymoma. The causes of thymoma-associated immune impairment are not understood, but this case demonstrates that selective defects can occur in the absence of global T cell impairment. Opportunistic infections should therefore be suspected in patients with thymoma even in the absence of quantitative immune deficiencies.

4
UI - 12208250
AU - Katsuta H; Okada M; Nakauchi T; Takahashi Y; Yamao S; Uchida S
TI - Cancer-associated retinopathy associated with invasive thymoma.
SO - Am J Ophthalmol 2002 Sep;134(3):383-9
AD - Department of Ophthalmology, Kurashiki Central Hospital, Okayama, Japan. katsuta@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp
PURPOSE: To report a case of cancer-associated retinopathy associated with invasive thymoma. DESIGN: Interventional case report. METHOD: A 2001. Ophthalmologic examinations and systemic examinations were performed. The patient received treatment including corticosteroid pulse therapy, plasmapheresis, and thymectomy. RESULTS: The patient developed progressive visual dysfunction including bilateral visual acuity loss, concentric contraction of visual fields, and color vision loss. In both eyes, retinal vessel attenuation and retinal pigment epithelium degeneration were observed with fundus ophthalmoscopy and fluorescein angiography. Response in electroretinogram was reduced, suggesting both rod and cone dysfunction. Autoantibody against 23-kD cancer-associated retinopathy (CAR) antigen (antirecoverin antibody) was detected in the patient's serum. A mediastinal tumor that was histopathologically diagnosed as invasive thymoma was detected and was surgically resected. During more than 3 years of follow-up, no other malignancy was detected despite extensive systemic evaluation. The patient also suffered from subclinical myasthenia gravis. Although temporary improvement of visual function was observed after treatment with steroid pulse therapy and plasmapheresis' light perception of each eye was lost in the end. CONCLUSIONS: The patient was diagnosed as having CAR. Invasive thymoma was considered to be the causative tumor because there had been no evidence that suggested other systemic malignancy during more than 3 years of follow-up.

5
UI - 12210039
AU - de Bree E; van Ruth S; Rutgers EJ; Zoetmulder FA
TI - Reoperation combined with intraoperative hyperthermic intrathoracic perfusion chemotherapy for pleural recurrence of thymoma.
SO - J Surg Oncol 2002 Aug;80(4):224-5

6
UI - 9842922
AU - Travers H; Girdlestone J
TI - IFN-alpha super-induction of HLA class I expression by a variant thymoma cell line involves nuclear translocation of Rel complexes.
SO - Eur J Immunol 1998 Nov;28(11):3792-9
AD - CCRIS, The Medical School, University of Birmingham, GB.
Variant thymoma lines have been described which exhibit a substantially increased level of HLA class I induction by IFN-alpha, but not by IFN-gamma, and an unchanged response of other IFN-alpha-stimulated genes (Burrone et al., EMBO J. 1985. 4: 2855-2860). We report that their amplified response correlates with the nuclear translocation of Rel transcription factors upon prolonged treatment with IFN-alpha. The variant cells contain an IkappaBalpha subset with a significantly shortened half-life, and a constitutively active form of IkappaBalpha efficiently blocks HLA class I induction. Therefore, in addition to STAT-mediated induction, prolonged exposure to IFN-alpha can affect transcription involving Rel factors, which are implicated in the regulation of numerous immune response and viral genes.

7
UI - 12079940
AU - Murakawa T; Nakajima J; Sato H; Tanaka M; Takamoto S; Fukayama M
TI - Thymoma associated with pure red-cell aplasia: clinical features and prognosis.
SO - Asian Cardiovasc Thorac Ann 2002 Jun;10(2):150-4
AD - Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. murakawa-tky@umin.ac.jp
As information on the clinical features and prognosis of thymoma complicated by pure red-cell aplasia is limited, follow-up data on thymoma patients who had a thymectomy between 1954 and 1999 were analyzed retrospectively. Six of 166 cases were complicated by pure red-cell aplasia. In 3 of these, the pure red-cell aplasia appeared after surgical intervention. Remission was observed in 2 patients who underwent extended thymectomy. The other 4 patients subsequently died from pure red-cell aplasia. The outcome in patients with pure red-cell aplasia was poorer than that in the entire group of patients with thymoma and in those with thymoma complicated by myasthenia gravis. The possible onset of pure red-cell aplasia after thymectomy should be kept in mind during follow-up.

8
UI - 12174662
AU - Kondo K; Monden Y
TI - [Thymic carcinoma]
SO - Kyobu Geka 2002 Jul;55(8 Suppl):701-8
AD - Second Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Tokushima, Tokushina, Japan.
Thymic epithelial tumors are mainly consisted of thymoma, thymic carcinoma, and thymic carcinoid. And thymic carcinoma is very rare neoplasm. The classification of thymic carcinoma has remained a subject of controversy for many years. The outline of thymic carcinoma has been clarified by "Atlas of Tumor Pathology: Tumors of the Mediastium (AFIP)" and "Histrogical Typing of Tumours of the Thymus (WHO)" published recently. Squamous cell carcinoma is by far the most common in Japan. Thymic carcinoma is a predilection for male. The peak of age was 40-60 years. Thymic carcinoma already had contiguous invasion around neighbor organs, dissemination, and lymph node metastases or distant metastases at diagnosis. Two third of patients with thymic carcinoma performed surgery, and most of them performed adjuvant radiotherapy or chemotherapy. 5-year survival of thymic carcinoma was 33-50%. Histologic tumor type, type of tumor margin, growth pattern, nuclear atypia, necrosis and mitotic activity were correlated with survival. In this paper thymic carcinoma is reviewed mainly based on recently literatures and results obtained from a questionnaire on thymic epithelial tumors in Japan.

9
UI - 12210090
AU - Chen PC; Pan CC; Yang AH; Wang LS; Chiang H
TI - Detection of Epstein-Barr virus genome within thymic epithelial tumours in Taiwanese patients by nested PCR, PCR in situ hybridization, and RNA in situ hybridization.
SO - J Pathol 2002 Aug;197(5):684-8
AD - Department of Pathology, National Yang-Ming University and Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, Taiwan.
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is known to be associated with a variety of tumours, including Burkitt's lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and some carcinomas of other organs with similar lymphoepithelioma-like features. The association between EBV and thymic epithelial tumours is inconclusive, as reports in this regard are not entirely consistent and the methods employed are of different sensitivity and specificity. This study examined 78 thymomas and 21 thymic carcinomas in Taiwanese patients, to detect the viral genome at both DNA and RNA levels. The tissue blocks were first screened by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting on the first tandem internal repeats. The positive cases were further submitted for viral localization by in situ PCR insitu hybridization (ISH) and Epstein-Barr-encoded RNA-1 (EBER-1) ISH. None of the thymomas showed a detectable EBV genome. Eight thymic carcinomas were positive for EBV by nested PCR, of which six displayed nuclear signals within the tumour cells by in situ PCR ISH and/or RNA ISH, one displayed signals within the lymphocytes, and one showed no discernible in situ signals. Most of them exhibited a lymphoepithelioma-like morphology. These results show that nested PCR is a sensitive method for screening the EBV genome in thymic epithelial tumours. In situ PCR ISH is reliable for localization of the virus, in addition to EBER-1 RNA ISH. Thymomas are not related to EBV, even in this endemic area. Thymic carcinomas, especially the lymphoepithelioma-like thymic carcinomas, are more often associated with the virus. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

10
UI - 12185179
AU - Van Parijs V; Van den Bergh PY; Vincent A
TI - Neuromyotonia and myasthenia gravis without thymoma.
SO - J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2002 Sep;73(3):344-5

11
UI - 12209958
AU - Sasaki H; Ide N; Fukai I; Kiriyama M; Yamakawa Y; Fujii Y
TI - Gene expression analysis of human thymoma correlates with tumor stage.
SO - Int J Cancer 2002 Oct 1;101(4):342-7
AD - Department of Surgery II, Nagoya City University Medical School, Nagoya, Japan. hisasaki@med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
Thymoma is one of the most common solid tumors in the mediastinum. The recent development of high-density oligonucleotide arrays provides a unique opportunity to generate gene expression profiles of cells from various stages of tumor progression as it occurs in actual neoplastic tissues. We used oligonucleotide arrays to monitor in vivo gene expression levels in early- (stage I or II) and late- (stage IVa) stage thymoma tissues in 36 patients. These in vivo gene expression profiles were verified by real-time quantitative RT-PCR using LightCycler. Using both methods, 2 candidate genes were identified that were more highly expressed in advanced-stage thymomas. One was a well-known gene, c-JUN, and another was an unknown gene, AL050002. AL050002 expression, but not c-JUN expression, was also correlated with the WHO classification (type B3 vs. type B1, B2 or AB). The combined use of oligonucleotide microarray and real-time RT-PCR analyses provides a powerful new approach to elucidate the in vivo molecular events correlated with tumor stage of thymoma. Copyright 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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