Thymoma

Thymomas are fascinating tumors because of their multifaceted clinical pres entation, including an unrivaled frequency of associated paraneoplastic aut oimmune diseases and an astounding histologic heterogeneity. Thus, thymomas challenge the clinician, pathologist, and immunologist alike with complex diagnostic and therapeutic problems in almost all fields of medicine, radio logy, nuclear medicine, surgery, radiooncology, and pathology. This review highlights recent progress in these fields, including the new World Health Organization's classification of thymomas, and reports on the beginning dis covery of the genetic basis of thymoma oncogenesis and the cellular and mol ecular immunopathology of thymoma-associated paraneoplastic autoimmunity. C urr Opin Oncol 2000, 12:426-433 (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc .