Yao JK, He ZY, Zhu Z, Huang HT. Treatment of thymoma with low-dose glucocorticoids before surgery for significant tumor shrinkage: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2025; 13(11): 98979 [DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i11.98979]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hai-Tao Huang, Chief Physician, MD, Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, No. 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215000, Jiangsu Province, China. hhtszmc@sina.com
Research Domain of This Article
Surgery
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Apr 16, 2025; 13(11): 98979 Published online Apr 16, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i11.98979
Treatment of thymoma with low-dose glucocorticoids before surgery for significant tumor shrinkage: A case report
Jin-Kun Yao, Zi-Yi He, Zheng Zhu, Hai-Tao Huang
Jin-Kun Yao, Zi-Yi He, Hai-Tao Huang, Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215000, Jiangsu Province, China
Zheng Zhu, Department of Thoracic Surgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215000, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-corresponding authors: Zi-Yi He and Hai-Tao Huang.
Author contributions: Yao JK drafted the manuscript; He ZY, Zhu Z, and Huang HT revised and approved the manuscript and provided guidance and technical support; Huang HT’s surgical team evaluated the patient and participated in the entire treatment of the patient; He ZY and Huang HT they contributed equally to this article, they are the co-corresponding authors of this manuscript; and all of the authors have contributed to this article and have approved the submitted version.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient’s family for publication of this case report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hai-Tao Huang, Chief Physician, MD, Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, No. 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215000, Jiangsu Province, China. hhtszmc@sina.com
Received: July 16, 2024 Revised: November 27, 2024 Accepted: December 13, 2024 Published online: April 16, 2025 Processing time: 162 Days and 23.1 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Thymic epithelial neoplasms are rare malignant neoplasms originating in the thymus gland. There have been case reports of patients with advanced thymomas treated with a methylprednisolone pulse or with glucocorticoid (GCs) shock before surgery, followed by surgical treatment, all of whom achieved good results. The effect of GCs on thymomas is related mainly to the action on GC receptors in thymic lymphocytes and epithelial cells. GC receptor expression has been associated with a better prognosis in patients with thymomas, including those with surgically removed thymomas.
CASE SUMMARY
We report a case of a patient with thymoma who had a significant response to preoperative low-dose GC therapy. A mediastinal tumor was detected in the patient via computerized tomography upon admission. The tumor was initially suspected to be a thymic tumor, but lymphoma could not be ruled out. The tumor shrank significantly after low-dose (5 mg/day) GC therapy. Thoracoscopic thymoma resection was performed after puncture pathology was confirmed. The patient recovered well after the operation and is currently performing well with no recurrence of the tumor.
CONCLUSION
This case highlights that low-dose GCs are effective in the treatment of thymomas, and we believe that GCs should be applied more frequently and studied more thoroughly in the treatment of thymomas.
Core Tip: This study reports a case of a thymoma patient whose tumor significantly shrank following preoperative treatment with low-dose glucocorticoids (GCs). The low-dose GC therapy demonstrated promising efficacy, promoting tumor reduction, minimizing intraoperative adhesions, and facilitating smooth postoperative recovery without recurrence. This study highlights the potential of GCs in the management of thymoma and calls for further investigation into their application in therapeutic strategies.
