AB027. Paraneoplastic diseases in patients with thymic epithelial tumours: findings from the nation-wide Danish thymic epithelial tumor database
Year: 2026
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: Background: Patients with thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are predisposed to autoimmune dis-eases, immunodeficiencies, and extrathymic malignancies. Still, the timing of these conditions relative to TET diagnosis and their prognostic significance remain poorly characterized. Methods: This nationwide study included all Danish patients diagnosed with TETs from 2015 to 2020. Data on demographics, tumor subtype, autoimmune diseases, immunodeficiencies, malig-nancies, follow-up, and survival were collected from electronic medical records. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize patient characteristics and disease chronology, while Kaplan-Meier analyses and log-rank tests were applied to assess associating with survival. Results: Among 282 patients with a median age of 66 years, thymoma accounted for 85% of cases, thymic carcinoma for 14%, and thymic neuroendocrine tumors for 1.4%. Prior to TET diagnosis, 105 (37.2%) patients had a previous cancer diagnosis and 88 (31.2%) had autoim-mune disease. Over a median follow-up of 65 months, 33 (11.7%) patients developed new auto-immune diseases, and 41 (14.5%) patients developed new extrathymic cancers. The pattern of malignancies differed over time, with skin and colorectal cancers predominating before TET diagnosis, while lymphoma and prostate cancer were most frequent afterward. Myasthenia gravis was the leading autoimmune disease both before and after TET diagnosis, while Good's syndrome occurred only after diagnosis in six patients. Pre-existing autoimmune disease and pre-existing extrathymic cancer were not significantly associated with overall survival. Conclusions: A substantial burden of autoimmune and malignant disease was observed among patients with TETs, predominated by myasthenia gravis. Pre-existing paraneoplastic diseases were not associated with survival. A trend was observed in the incidence of certain disorders suggesting a shift in the pattern of developed paraneoplastic diseases after TET diagnosis.
Source: Mediastinum
Institutions: Copenhagen University Hospital, University of Copenhagen
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Neurology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225084212