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New Approaches to the Diagnosis of Thymic Epithelial Tumors

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Progress in Surgical Pathology

Abstract

The increasing knowledge of the functional and phenotypic heterogeneity of epithelial cells and of the specific organization of cellular microenvironments for T cell maturation and regulation of self-tolerance in the normal thymus has substantially contributed to a better understanding of the complex morphology of thymic epithelial tumors and their relationship with paraneoplastic immune syndromes, of which the association to autoimmune myasthenia gravis (MG) is most frequent.1–3 Previous morphological typing of thymomas has been mainly descriptive distinguishing between epithelioid, epidermoid and spindle cell features of thymomatous epithelial cells as well as lymphocytic, mixed, and epithelial tumor types according to their lymphocytic component.4–6

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Authors
  1. Thomas Kirchner
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of New Mexico, USA

    M. Cecilia Fenoglio-Preiser M.D. (Professor of Pathology, Director of Laboratory Services) (Professor of Pathology, Director of Laboratory Services)

  2. Albuquerque Veterans Administration Medical Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

    M. Cecilia Fenoglio-Preiser M.D. (Professor of Pathology, Director of Laboratory Services) (Professor of Pathology, Director of Laboratory Services)

  3. Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Department of Pathology, Memorial Hospital, Morristown, New Jersey, USA

    Marianne Wolff M.D. (Professor of Clinical Surgical Pathology) (Professor of Clinical Surgical Pathology)

  4. National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy

    Franco Rilke M.D. (Deputy Director, Director, Professor) (Deputy Director, Director, Professor)

  5. Division of Pathology, Italy

    Franco Rilke M.D. (Deputy Director, Director, Professor) (Deputy Director, Director, Professor)

  6. Postgraduate School of Anatomic Pathology, University of Pavia, Italy

    Franco Rilke M.D. (Deputy Director, Director, Professor) (Deputy Director, Director, Professor)

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kirchner, T., Müller-Hermelink, H.K. (1989). New Approaches to the Diagnosis of Thymic Epithelial Tumors. In: Cecilia Fenoglio-Preiser, M., Wolff, M., Rilke, F. (eds) Progress in Surgical Pathology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-12823-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-12823-7_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-12825-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-12823-7

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