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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Respirol. Jul 28, 2015; 5(2): 176-179
Published online Jul 28, 2015. doi: 10.5320/wjr.v5.i2.176
Published online Jul 28, 2015. doi: 10.5320/wjr.v5.i2.176
Myasthenia gravis as a form of clinical presentation of thymic carcinoma
Joana Espiga de Macedo, Sílvia Lopes, Helena Gouveia, Sofia Oliveira, João Cunha, Ana Luísa Faria, Sónia Rego, Emílio Macias Bravo, Department of Medical Oncology of Centro Hospitalar de Entre o Douro e Vouga, 4520-211 Santa Maria Da Feira, Portugal
Albino Oliveira, Department of Pathology of Centro Hospitalar de Entre o Douro e Vouga, 4520-211 Santa Maria Da Feira, Portugal
Luís Krug, Department of Radiology of Centro Hospitalar de Entre o Douro e Vouga, 4520-211 Santa Maria Da Feira, Portugal
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Oncology Department of Centro Hospitalar entre Douro e Vouga, Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Joana Espiga de Macedo has received fees for serving as a speaker, such as consultant and/or an advisory board member for Celgene, Merck and Roche. Emílio Macias Bravo has received fees for serving as a speaker, such as consultant and/or an advisory board member for Astellas, Merck and Roche. Ana Luísa Faria has received serving as a speaker for Celgene. Sónia Rego has received serving as a speaker for AstraZeneca, Grunenthal and Pharmamar.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Joana Espiga de Macedo, MD, Department of Medical Oncology of Centro Hospitalar de Entre o Douro e Vouga, Rua Dr. Cândido de Pinho, 4520-211 Santa Maria Da Feira, Portugal. joanamacedo@hotmail.com
Telephone: +351-93-6050138 Fax: +351-25-6373867
Received: September 25, 2014
Peer-review started: September 26, 2014
First decision: December 17, 2014
Revised: April 18, 2015
Accepted: April 28, 2015
Article in press: April 30, 2015
Published online: July 28, 2015
Peer-review started: September 26, 2014
First decision: December 17, 2014
Revised: April 18, 2015
Accepted: April 28, 2015
Article in press: April 30, 2015
Published online: July 28, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: We report a rare form of clinical presentation of a thymic carcinoma in which the diagnosis of myasthenia gravis was the cornerstone of the diagnosis of cancer. Surgery is considered the salvage treatment when possible. Radiotherapy is a second choice of salvage treatment, when possible depending on its localization and relation to nearby structures such as vascular structures. The prognosis is very reserved, when neither surgery nor radiotherapy can be accomplished. Having an unfavorable molecular signature, less than 10% of thymic carcinomas have c-kit mutations, and clinical outcome of these patients is detrimental.