Thymectomy as an oncologic and immunologic treatment

Thymectomy for thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) has been an established thoracic surgical procedure for more than 40 years (1) and also has been reported to manage myasthenia gravis (MG) in selected patients for more than 50 years (2). Paraneoplastic autoimmune (PN/AI) syndromes such as MG, pure red cell aplasia (PRCA), hypogammaglobulinemia are a clinically important entity in patients with TETs. Among them, MG in patients with thymoma is the most commonly encountered PN/AI syndrome.