BACKGROUND Thymoma is a cancer with rare incidence, but it is a major malignancy in adult anterior mediastinum, occurring in about 40% of patients with myasthenia gravis. Because of the lack of thymic epithelial tumor cell lines, thymoma has lagged far behind other tumors in cytological studies. It is, therefore, quite necessary to establish a new thymic epithelial tumor cell line from Chinese ...

We investigated by molecular hybridization whether T cells contain RNA sequences homologous to RNA which codes for immunoglobulin kappa-chain (k-chain). A radioactive probe of complementary DNA (cDNA) was prepared by transcription of purified k-chain mRNA from mouse myeloma MOPC-41 with reverse transcriptase (RNA-dependent-DNA nucleotidyltransferase) from avian myeloblastosis virus. The cDNA pr...

BACKGROUND Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) has significantly developed over the last decade. However, a VATS approach for thymoma remains controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of VATS thymectomy for the treatment of early-stage thymoma and to compare the outcomes with open resection. METHODS A comparative study of 59 patients who underwent surgical resect...

A 71-year-old man presented with a thymic mass involving the superior vena cava. A mediastinoscopical biopsy initially suggested a diagnosis of type A thymoma. After neoadjuvant chemotherapy, the patient underwent en-bloc thymectomy and vascular resection for a pathology-confirmed type B3 thymoma involving the superior vena cava, the left brachiocephalic vein and the distal part of the right br...

INTRODUCTION The association of thymoma with myasthenia gravis (MG) is well known. Thymoma with sarcoidosis however, is very rare. We presented an interesting case with coexisting thymoma, MG and sarcoidosis. CASE PRESENTATION A 59-year-old female patient with a history of sarcoidosis was admitted to the hospital with a one-day history of sudden onset of right-sided partial ptosis and diplopi...

Goods Syndrome (GS) is a rare adult-onset combined immunodeficiency characterized by thymoma, hypogammaglobulinaemia and B- cell depletion. Patients with GS are predisposed to recurrent infections.