Loading
4 slides generated from the cancer page, with a quiz from the open benchmark and speaker notes that cite the sources. Arrow keys move between slides; Print gives one slide per page.
Type B3 thymoma is the most aggressive thymoma, a thymus gland tumour made mostly of epithelial cells with few lymphocytes, sitting at the border with thymic carcinoma. More than a third have already grown into the chest structures when found, so it is treated with surgery plus radiotherapy, and chemotherapy before surgery when it is too large to remove at once.
Type B3 thymoma is the epithelial-rich thymoma of the WHO classification, once called well-differentiated thymic carcinoma; the ITMIG consensus set criteria separating B3 from B2 and from thymic carcinoma, the latter distinguished by frank cytological atypia, loss of thymus-like features and expression of CD5 and CD117 (Marx 2014). In the worldwide database, 38 percent of type B3 thymomas were stage III at diagnosis, the highest of any type, and the B1 to B3 group recurred in 2 to 7 percent after resection against 1 to 2 percent for A and AB (Weis 2015).
How it differs from its parent: it is the thymoma most likely to invade the pericardium, great vessels and lung and to recur, so it is the one where preoperative chemotherapy, radical surgery with vascular reconstruction and postoperative radiotherapy are most often combined, and the one that must be separated from thymic carcinoma, which has its own page and its own drugs.
| Setting | Approach | Guideline |
|---|---|---|
| All stages | Resection with postoperative radiotherapy for stage II to III or incomplete resection; induction platinum-based chemotherapy for unresectable tumours; recurrence as on the parent page. | not mapped |