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Cancer Types / Miscellaneous/Other Diseases / Thymoma / NCI Resources

NCI CANCERLIT^® Search: Malignant Thymoma - October 2002

National Cancer Institute^®
Last Modified: October 1, 2002

A case of recurrent metastatic thymoma showing a marked response to paclitaxel monotherapy.
Correlation between tumor angiogenesis and invasiveness in thymic epithelial tumors.
Middle mediastinal thymoma.
Paraneoplastic neurological autoimmunity associated with ANNA-1 autoantibody and thymoma.
Oral erosive lichen planus associated with thymoma.
Graft-versus-host-like colitis and malignant thymoma.
Thymoma associated with hypogammaglobulinemia (Good's syndrome): report of a case.
An abnormal chest x-ray.
Expression of MHC class II-associated invariant chain (Ii;CD74) in thymic epithelial neoplasms.
Thymoma-associated systemic lupus erythematosus, exacerbating after thymectomy. A case report and review of the literature.

Table of Contents

1
UI - 12324577
AU - Umemura S; Segawa Y; Fujiwara K; Takata I; Seki N; Tokuda Y; Eguchi K;
TI - Mandai K A case of recurrent metastatic thymoma showing a marked response to paclitaxel monotherapy.
SO - Jpn J Clin Oncol 2002 Jul;32(7):262-5
AD - Department of Internal Medicine, National Shikoku Cancer Center Hospital, Matsuyama, Japan. sumemura@shikoku-cc.go.jp
We describe a case of recurrent metastatic thymoma showing an excellent response to salvage paclitaxel monotherapy. The patient had undergone a series of platinum-based chemotherapy treatments during the previous 20-month period and the patient's disease was considered resistant to such therapy at the start of treatment with paclitaxel. This is the first report to suggest that paclitaxel has anti-thymoma activity.

2
UI - 12202865
AU - Tomita M; Matsuzaki Y; Edagawa M; Maeda M; Shimizu T; Hara M; Onitsuka T
TI - Correlation between tumor angiogenesis and invasiveness in thymic epithelial tumors.
SO - J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2002 Sep;124(3):493-8
AD - Department of Surgery II, Miyazaki Medical College, Kiyotake, Miyazaki, Japan. mtomita@post.miyazaki-med.ac.jp
OBJECTIVE: Because it is difficult to predict the behavior of thymomas on the basis of morphology alone, other methods for determining tumor aggressiveness must be explored. This study investigated the correlation between angiogenic grade and invasiveness in thymic epithelial tumors. METHODS: Immunohistochemical studies of 46 surgically resected thymic epithelial tumors (18 noninvasive thymomas, 20 invasive thymomas, and 8 thymic carcinomas) were conducted. To highlight the microvessels, we used a specific monoclonal antibody against factor VIII. Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor was determined by using polyclonal antibodies. RESULTS: Mean microvessel density readings for noninvasive thymomas, invasive thymomas, and thymic carcinomas were 4.6 +/- 3.2, 12.4 +/- 7.5, and 34.4 +/- 16.7, respectively. Stages I, II, III, and IV of thymoma had microvessel density readings of 4.6 +/- 3.2, 8.5 +/- 4.3, 13.8 +/- 7.7, and 22.0 +/- 6.8, respectively. These findings suggest a significant correlation between microvessel density and tumor invasiveness. Vascular endothelial growth factor expression in noninvasive thymomas, invasive thymomas, and thymic carcinomas was present in 1 (5.6%) of 18, 11 (55.0%) of 20, and 5 (62.5%) of 8 patients, respectively, thereby indicating a distinct association between vascular endothelial growth factor expression and increased microvessel density. Basic fibroblast growth factor expression was present in only 8 patients. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with thymic epithelial tumors, there appears to be a significant correlation between tumor angiogenesis and invasiveness. Furthermore, our data suggests that this angiogenesis in thymic epithelial tumors might be, at least in part, dependent on vascular endothelial growth factor expression.

3
UI - 12202887
AU - Kojima K; Yokoi K; Matsuguma H; Kondo T; Kamiyama Y; Mori K; Igarashi S
TI - Middle mediastinal thymoma.
SO - J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2002 Sep;124(3):639-40
AD - Divisions of Thoracic Surgery, Thoracic Diseases, and Pathology, Tochigi Cancer Center, Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan.

4
UI - 12297583
AU - Vernino S; Eggenberger ER; Rogers LR; Lennon VA
TI - Paraneoplastic neurological autoimmunity associated with ANNA-1 autoantibody and thymoma.
SO - Neurology 2002 Sep 24;59(6):929-32
AD - Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
Neurologic autoimmunity frequently occurs with thymoma, particularly myasthenia gravis and skeletal muscle-specific autoantibodies. Type 1 antineuronal nuclear antibody (ANNA-1/"anti-Hu"), which is recognized as an immunoglobulin G marker of small-cell lung carcinoma, has not been reported with thymoma. The authors identified four patients (three under age 40) with ANNA-1 and a paraneoplastic neurologic complication of thymoma. Retrospective testing of stored serum from 172 patients with thymoma revealed ANNA-1 in 3%. This report extends the oncologic implications of ANNA-1 seropositivity.

5
UI - 11903672
AU - Calista D
TI - Oral erosive lichen planus associated with thymoma.
SO - Int J Dermatol 2001 Dec;40(12):762-4
AD - Department of Dermatology, M. Bufalini Hospital, 47023 Cesena, Italy. calista@iol.it

6
UI - 12353844
AU - Lowry PW; Myers JD; Geller A; Bostwick DG; Clain JE
TI - Graft-versus-host-like colitis and malignant thymoma.
SO - Dig Dis Sci 2002 Sep;47(9):1998-2001
AD - Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.

7
UI - 11991514
AU - Oshikiri T; Morikawa T; Sugiura H; Katoh H
TI - Thymoma associated with hypogammaglobulinemia (Good's syndrome): report of a case.
SO - Surg Today 2002;32(3):264-6
AD - Department of Surgical Oncology, Hokkaido University Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
A 63-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for treatment of hypogammaglobulinemia with thymoma (Good's syndrome). Tests for immunological function showed an abnormality in humoral immunity with decreases in the proportion of cells bearing B-cell markers in the peripheral blood and bone marrow. The patient was found to have Campylobacter fetus sepsis caused by the hypogammaglobulinemia due to humoral immunodeficiency, and he was given gamma-globulin supplement. Thymectomy was performed due to enlargement of the thymoma after 4 years of follow-up and the pathological diagnosis was thymoma of the non-encapsulated, epithelial spindle cell type. Although there was no recurrence of thymoma, the hypogammaglobulinemia remained unchanged and the patient continued to suffer from repeated infections. Thus, we describe the case of a patient with Good's syndrome associated with independent humoral immunodeficiency in whom the effect of thymectomy for hypogammaglobulinemia was negative. In this respect, thymectomy was only beneficial when the thymoma proliferated and seemed to be more threatening than the hypogammaglobulinemia for the patient.

8
UI - 12361433
AU - Hashmi S; Parandian B
TI - An abnormal chest x-ray.
SO - Arch Surg 2002 Oct;137(10):1193-4
AD - Division of Surgical Critical Care, Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA. shashmi@partners.org

9
UI - 10981873
AU - Datta MW; Shahsafaei A; Nadler LM; Freeman GJ; Dorfman DM
TI - Expression of MHC class II-associated invariant chain (Ii;CD74) in thymic epithelial neoplasms.
SO - Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol 2000 Sep;8(3):210-5
AD - Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Thymic epithelial cells express major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II and are involved in T-cell ontogeny. In these cells, MHC class II-associated invariant chain (CD74) is involved in antigen presentation during T-cell selection. We studied a range of thymic epithelial neoplasms for CD74 expression by neoplastic epithelial cells to determine whether such expression correlates with MHC class II expression and tumor type. Sixty-four thymic epithelial neoplasms (27 cases of benign thymoma, 20 cases of invasive thymoma, and 17 cases of true thymic carcinoma) were studied for neoplastic epithelial cell expression of CD74 and MHC class II molecules by immunohistochemical staining of paraffin-embedded tissue. Neoplastic epithelial cells in 88% of thymic carcinomas (15/17), 70% of invasive thymomas (14/20), but only 33% of benign thymomas (9/27) were immunoreactive for CD74. A subset of CD74-positive neoplasms was positive for MHC class II as well, with higher relative rates of dual positivity in more aggressive neoplasms. In addition, specific histologic subtypes of thymic epithelial neoplasms displayed differing patterns of CD74 positivity. Based on these findings, CD74 and MHC class II are useful markers for the classification of thymic epithelial neoplasms.

10
UI - 10986315
AU - Boonen A; Rennenberg R; van der Linden S
TI - Thymoma-associated systemic lupus erythematosus, exacerbating after thymectomy. A case report and review of the literature.
SO - Rheumatology (Oxford) 2000 Sep;39(9):1044-6

The above citations and abstracts reflect those newly added to CANCERLIT for the month and topic listed in the title. The citations have been retrieved from CANCERLIT using a predefined search strategy of indexed subject terms. Although the search strategy has been refined as best as possible, citations may appear that are not directly related to the topic, and occasionally relevant references may be omitted.

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