• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.771-774
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• 2016

Thymic tumors are the most common tumors in the anterior mediastinum. Total resection is the main treatment and predictor of longer survival. Adjuvant radiotherapy alone or in combination with chemotherapy is recommended with incomplete excision or advanced disease. Thirty seven patients with thymic tumors were included in this retrospective study from January 2001 till December 2012. They were studied regarding age, sex, performance status, tumor size and invasion, stage, pathology, treatment given, overall and progression free survival. Myasthenia gravis was present in 18.1% of the patients. Masaoka stage III was diagnosed in 40.5% of the cases followed by stage II in 24.3% and the other stages with lower percentages. Pathology type B3 was the most frequent followed by B2 and B1 with percentages of 27, 24.3 and 21.7 respectively. Complete resection was conducted in 11 cases (29.75%). Partial resection or debulking was done in 15 (40.5%) and a biopsy was taken in 11 cases (29.8%) Adjuvant chemotherapy was given to 14 patients (37.8%) and neoadjuvant to 13 (35.2%). Adjuvant radiotherapy was given to 17 patients (46%) and neoadjuvant to 14 (37.8%). The 5-year overall survival by was 83% for stage I, 71% for stage II, 60% for stage III, and 44% for stage IV (p=0.0426). Five year progression free survival was 71% for stage I, 62% stage II, 42% stage III, and 37% for stage IV (p=0.0532). In conclusion with the rare thymic tumors early stage and complete resection have the highest impact on overall and progression free survival.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.207-210
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• 2014

The peritoneum is the most frequent site of recurrence for gastric cancer after gastrectomy, followed by the liver and lymph nodes. In contrast, metastasis to the thymus is rare. Annual surveillance with computed tomography was performed on a 67-year-old man who previously underwent a distal gastrectomy and D2 lymph node dissection for gastric cancer at Tottori University. Five years after the initial operation, an anterior mediastinal tumor was detected by computed tomography. The patient underwent video-assisted thoracic surgery to remove the tumor. Histopathology revealed adenocarcinoma cells similar to those of the gastric cancer resected 5 years previously. Thymic metastasis was considered likely based on the location of the tumor. The recognition that gastric cancer can metastasize to unusual anatomic locations, such as the thymus, can facilitate an accurate, prompt diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.131-137
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• 2013

Purpose: We evaluated treatment outcomes of thymic carcinomas to determine prognostic factors for survival. Materials and Methods: Between May 1988 and May 2009, 41 patients had pathologic diagnosis of thymic carcinoma in Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea. Of these, 40 patients were followed up to 188 months after treatment. The mean age of all patients was 58.3 years and male to female ratio was 23 to 17. Results: Among 30 patients who underwent surgical resection, 26 achieved R0 resection and postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) was performed in 22 patients (73%). Various chemotherapeutic regimens were given with local treatment modalities, surgery and/or radiotherapy, in 12 patients. The 5-year locoregional control (LRC), distant metastasis-free survival, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival were 79.4%, 53.0%, 42.6%, and 63.6%, respectively. Patients with Masaoka stage I or II showed excellent prognosis of 5-year PFS around 90%. In advanced stages, invasion of the great vessels or atrium by thymic carcinomas was negative prognostic factor for PFS in univariate analysis. Lymph node involvement was statistically significant factor for LRC and PFS. Local or regional recurrence was infrequent after surgical resection followed by PORT, while distant metastasis was the major component of treatment failure. Conclusion: Complete resection followed by PORT provided remarkable local control without severe acute toxicities in patients with stage II and favorable stage III thymic carcinoma. Invasion of the great vessels or atrium was statistically significant prognostic factor for PFS.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.78 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 2015

Primary thymic adenocarcinoma is a very rare malignancy of the anterior mediastinum with no standardized treatment. A 36-year-old male patient presented with hoarseness over the past 3 months. A chest computed tomography (CT) scan showed an infiltrative mass to the proximal vessels and aortic arch in left upper mediastinum ($4.1{\times}3.1{\times}5.4cm$). Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed focal lesions, suggesting metastasis in the left frontal lobe. A thoracoscopic biopsy of the mediastinal mass confirmed a primary thymic adenocarcinoma forming a glandular structure with atypia of tumor cells. The patient received four cycles of systemic chemotherapy, consisting of etoposide and cisplatin, with concurrent radiotherapy (6,000 cGy/30 fractions) to the mediastinal lesion and the metastatic brain lesion (4,200 cGy/12 fractions). A follow-up chest CT scan and brain MRI showed a decrease in the size of the left upper mediastinal mass and brain lesion. We report a rare case of the primary thymic adenocarcinoma with a literature review.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.447-451
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• 2015

This report describes the case of a 57-year-old man with an anterior mediastinal tumor. Four years previously, he underwent laparoscopic anterior resection for sigmoid colon cancer. Thirty months after that procedure, bilateral pulmonary metastasectomy was performed. Twelve months later, follow-up computed tomography revealed a 1-cm pulmonary nodule on the upper lobe of the right lung and a solid mass on the anterior mediastinum, and the patient was also observed to have an elevated serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level. Repeated pulmonary nodule resection and total thymectomy were performed. Immunohistochemical staining of the anterior mediastinal tumor revealed adenocarcinoma, and his serum CEA level returned to normal after the operation. These findings strongly suggested metastatic thymic adenocarcinoma from a colorectal cancer.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.251-258
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• 2015

Germline mutations in the breast cancer type 2 susceptibility gene (BRCA2) are linked to familial breast cancer and the progressive bone marrow failure syndrome Fanconi anaemia. Established Brca2 mouse knockout models show embryonic lethality, but those with a truncating mutation at the C-terminus survive to birth and develop thymic lymphoma at an early age. To overcome early lethality and investigate the function of BRCA2, we used T cell-specific conditional Brca2 knockout mice, which were previously shown to develop thymic lymphoma at a low penetrance. In the current study we showed that the number of peripheral T cells, particularly na$\ddot{i}$ve pools, drastically declined with age. This decline was primarily ascribed to improper peripheral maintenance. Furthermore, heterozygous mice with one wild-type Brca2 allele manifested reduced T cell numbers, suggesting that Brca2 haploinsufficiency might also result in T cell loss. Our study reveals molecular events occurring in Brca2-deficient T cells and suggests that both heterozygous and homozygous Brca2 mutation may lead to dysfunction in T cell populations.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.164-169
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• 2015

In the present study, we determined the effect of $18{\beta}$-glycyrrhetinic acid ($18{\beta}$-GA) in the mice model bearing xenografts of HT-29 human colon cancer cell line. Data from the cytotoxicity assay displayed that $18{\beta}$-GA induced cell death in HT-29. The cytotoxicity was enhanced as the $18{\beta}$-GA treatment was prolonged. In case of 72 hrs treatment, $LD_{50}$ of $18{\beta}$-GA was approximately $90{\mu}M$, and the efficacy at $100{\mu}M$ of $18{\beta}$-GA appeared to be equivalent to that of doxorubicin at $1{\mu}M$. Based on the in vitro data, we tested the anti-tumor effect of $18{\beta}$-GA in thymic mice (Balb/c strain). Xenograft tumors were generated by subcutaneous injection of HT-29 ($3{\times}10^6cells/mouse$) to mice and the mice were treated intraperitoneally with $18{\beta}$-GA ($50{\mu}g/time/mouse$) every other day for 4 times. The tumor volumes were measured for a period of 14 days. Data displayed that the $18{\beta}$-GA treatment reduced the tumor volumes (P < 0.05) as compared to control mice. However, this activity was demolished when athymic mice (Balb/c nu/nu) were used instead of thymic mice. This observation appeared that T lymphocyte played an important role in the anti-tumor activity. In conclusion, our results indicate that $18{\beta}$-GA has anti-tumor activity in HT-29 tumor-bearing mice, which may be associated with T cells.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.1112-1118
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• 1999

Galectin-3 plays an important role in cell development, differentiation and cancer metastasis, including cell-cell/extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions and is supposed to have an effect of apoptosis on T-cells in thymic clonal selection. In this study, to know the effect of galectin-3 on thymocyte development, we used recombinant human galectin-3 (rHgal-3) from Escherichia coli, JM105, which was inserted with human gal-3 gene-transformed plasmid vector (prGal-3) to express human galectin-3. Expressed rHgal-3 was confirmed by western blot using the culture supernant of hybridoma (M3/38) producing monoclonal antibody to human galectin-3. Sepharose gel affinity chromatography was used to purify the expressed rHgal-3. Thymocytes and hepatocytes from 6-week-old male BALB/c mice were incubated with rHgal-3 and showed marked increase of apoptotic population on analysis using flow cytometry with 7-AAD in a dosedependent manner. However, rHgal-3 failed to induce apoptosis on hepatocytes. Interestingly, this apoptotic effect was not inhibited by lactose, a specific lectin domain inhibitor. From these results, we concluded that extrinsic -3 induces apoptosis on mouse thymocytes, and galectin-3 may have an apoptotic effect on T-cells in thymic clonal selection.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.281-288
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• 2001

Background : The most common anterior mediastinal tumors originate from the thymus. Among them, thymic carcinomas occur as an early local invasion and wide spread metastases. However, when squamous cell carcinoma in the thymus or mediastinum is identified, an occult primary lung cancer must be excluded because the histologic types resemble those found more typically in the lung. CD5 and cytokeratin immunohistochemical staining is useful in evaluating biopsy samples from those tumors. Squamous cell carcinoma of an unknown primary origin in the mediastinum is a rare occurrence and there are only a handful of case reports. Here we describe a case with an anterior mediastinal mass of squamous cell carcinoma with unknown primary origin. A resection of the mediastinal mass without an association with the lung was performed. Immunohistochemical stallings were positive using cytokeratin 13, and negative using CD5 and cytokeratin 7. This was followed by chemotherapy for presumed thymic carcinoma.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.402-408
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• 1999

This report describes the thymic carcinoid tumor behaved in a highly aggressive fashion metastasis. Anti-cancer chemotherapy was not effective, the patient died of progressive disease after three months of diagnosis.