An American study shows that the risks of cancer but also of autoimmune diseases and death are higher in patients who have undergone this surgical operation.
We don’t talk about it much, we don’t know it well, but this gland in the human body is far from being useless. Removing it would even be detrimental to health according to the observations of researchers published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). “There Function of the thymus in human adults is unclear And routine ablation is carried out as part of various surgical interventions” they explain about this gland located at neck level and thorax. She is known for playing a role in immunity. To verify this, the researchers selected 1,420 patients who had undergone thymectomy (removal of the thymus) and 6,021 controls. They then looked at the number of deaths of the participants, the occurrence of cancers and autoimmune diseases in them.
A twice as high risk of cancer after ablation
Result: 5 years after the surgical intervention, the all-cause mortality was higher in the thymectomy group than in the control group (8% versus 2.8%), as was the cancer risk (7.4% compared to 3.7%). Same thing for the risk of autoimmune diseases. The authors also noted a decreased production of T lymphocytes (of the white blood cells who participate in immune defenses) and higher rates of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the blood in the thymectomy group. “This phenotype may be linked to immunosenescence (phenomenon of loss of effectiveness of the immune system, editor’s note) caused by removal of the thymus but enough data was not provided (in the study, editor’s note) to speculate on the biological processes involved in these results” qualified university specialists in myasthenia gravis (a disease for which removal of the thymus is recommended) in a article of November 2023 also published in the NEJM.
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Results which should not deter myasthenia sufferers
“Contrary to the current study, several studies have shown no increase in cancer risk from thymectomy in patients with myasthenia gravis. Thymectomy is safe and evidence-based in these patients.” For them, the results of the study should not dissuade patients from having this operation. An opinion shared by Professor Marco Alifano, head of the thoracic surgery department at Cochin hospital whom we interviewed in an article dedicated to the thymus: “It has been shown for decades that ablation of the thymus could lead to an improvement or even a cure for myasthenia gravis. ; this is confirmed by recent studies with a very strong level of evidence.”