title: Pediatric thymomas: report of two cases and comprehensive review of the literature.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Thymomas are rare pediatric malignancies with indolent behavior. There are fewer than 50 reported cases and no comprehensive review. We sought to evaluate our recent experience with pediatric thymomas, and comprehensively review the extant literature.
  
  
  METHODS
  A systematic search of the PubMed database was performed using keywords: "thymoma", "pediatric", "juvenile", "childhood", and "child". Additional studies were identified by a manual search of the reference list.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We report two patients with thymomas. We identified 22 case reports or series that described 48 patients; 62 % were male, 15 % presented with myasthenia gravis. Fifty percent were Masaoka Stage I, 15 % were Stage II, 13 % were Stage III, and 23 % were Stage IV. Four patients with early stage (I or II) disease were treated with adjuvant therapies in addition to surgical excision, while five patients with late stage (III or IV) disease treated with surgical excision alone. Of studies reporting at least 2-year follow-up, survival was 71 %.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pediatric thymomas are rare tumors with a slight male predominance. Wide variations were observed in the treatment of thymomas across all stages. Our review indicates a need for large database and multi-institutional studies to clearly elucidate clinical course, prognostic factors and outcome.
authors: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, FMB 107, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA, annabelle.fonseca@yale.edu.
authors: Annabelle L
authors: AL
authors: Fonseca
authors: Doruk E
authors: DE
authors: Ozgediz
authors: Emily R
authors: ER
authors: Christison-Lagay
authors: Frank C
authors: FC
authors: Detterbeck
authors: Michael G
authors: MG
authors: Caty
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy / Q000379:methods; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D013945:Thymoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome