2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer (Posters)-EP14.02. Mixed Feelings about Mixed Thymomas

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This study aimed to investigate the incidence and population characteristics of patients with mixed thymomas, a type of thymoma characterized by histopathological heterogeneity. The authors analyzed data from patients who underwent thymomectomy between 2012-2022 at the Maastricht University Medical Center. Thymomas were histologically classified according to the World Health Organization classification and tumor invasion was reported using staging systems. The definition of mixed thymoma was based on histologically proven heterogeneity in resected thymoma. <br /><br />The study found that mixed thymomas were present in 38.3% of all resected thymomas. The most commonly found mixed types were A-B2 and B2-B3. The use of immunosuppressive drugs was significantly less common in patients with mixed thymoma compared to non-mixed thymoma. Myasthenia gravis was diagnosed in 57.8% of the mixed thymomas. Postoperative mediastinal radiotherapy after complete resection was less performed in patients with mixed type B3 thymoma compared to non-mixed type B3 thymoma. <br /><br />The authors concluded that tumor heterogeneity was found in a significant proportion of resected thymomas and that 43.8% of mixed thymomas had type B3 compartments. Patients with mixed type B3 thymoma underwent significantly less postoperative mediastinal radiotherapy after complete resection compared to non-mixed type B3 thymoma. The authors suggest that further research is necessary to analyze the possible disadvantages of tumor heterogeneity on quality of life, adjuvant treatment, recurrence, and survival rates. They also emphasize the importance of updating sampling guidelines for thymic epithelial tumors to support uniformity in describing heterogeneity in thymomas.

Asset Subtitle

Florit Marcuse

Meta Tag

Speaker Florit Marcuse

Topic Thymic Malignancy

Keywords

mixed thymomas

thymoma

histopathological heterogeneity

Maastricht University Medical Center

immunosuppressive drugs

myasthenia gravis

postoperative mediastinal radiotherapy

tumor heterogeneity

complete resection

sampling guidelines