Thymoma history and symptoms

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Amr Marawan, M.D. [2]

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Overview

One-third of patients have their tumors discovered because they have an associated autoimmune disorder. The most common of those conditions is myasthenia gravis (MG); 10–15% of patients with MG have a thymoma and, conversely, 30–45% of patients with thymomas have MG.

Signs and symptoms

A third of all people with a thymoma have symptoms caused by compression of the surrounding organs by an expansive mass. These problems may take the form of (compression of the upper caval vein), dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), cough or chest pain.

As mentioned earlier,one-third of patients have their tumors discovered because they have an associated autoimmune disorder the most common of those conditions is myasthenia gravis (MG). Additional associated autoimmune conditions include pure red cell aplasia and Good's syndrome (thymoma with combined immunodeficiency and hypogammaglobulinemia). Other reported disease associations are with acute pericarditis, Addison's disease, agranulocytosis, alopecia areata, ulcerative colitis, Cushing's disease, hemolytic anemia, limbic encephalitis, myocarditis, nephrotic syndrome, panhypopituitarism, pernicious anemia, polymyositis, rheumatoid arthritis, sarcoidosis, scleroderma, sensorimotor radiculopathy, stiff person syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus and thyroiditis.

One-third to one-half of all persons with thymoma have no symptoms at all, and the mass is identified on a chest X-ray or CT/CAT scan performed for an unrelated problem.

A third to half of all people with a thymoma have no symptoms at all, and the mass is identified on a chest X-ray performed for an unrelated problem.

List of autoimmune diseases associated

Type	Diseases
Neuromuscular Diseases	Myasthenia gravis, neuromyotonia, rippling muscle disease, polymyositis/dermatomyositis, encephalitis (limbic, cortical and brain stem), intestinal pseudoobstruction.
Haematologic Autoimmune Diseases	Anemia: pure red cell aplasia, pernicious anemia, hemolytic anemia and aplastic anemia. Other isolated cytopenis: esinophils, basophils and neutophils. Immunodeficiencies: hypogammaglobulinaemia +/- T-cell deficiencies (Good syndrome).
Dermatologic Diseases	Pemphigus (foliaceus or paraneoplastic), lichen planus, alopecia areata.
Endocrine Disorders	Addison disease, graves disease and cushing disease.
Renal and Hepatic Diseases	Glomerulonephritis and autoimmune hepatitis.
Systemic Autoimmune Diseases	SLE, sjögren syndrome, systmeic sclerosis and graft-versus-host-disease.