JOURNAL CLUB: Doubling Time of Thymic Epithelial Tumors Correlates With World Health Organization Histopathologic Classification

OBJECTIVE. Awareness of volume doubling times (VDTs) of different thymic epithelial tumors (TETs), including low- and high-grade thymomas and thymic carcinomas, is important for their management. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the VDTs of incidentally found TETs using 3D volumetry (3D-VDT) and longest diameter (LD-VDT). MATERIALS AND METHODS. This retrospective study included 50 patients (30 men, 20 women) who had histologically proven TETs and who underwent at least two serial CT studies at greater than 2-month intervals. TETs were classified into World Health Organization subtypes and further divided into low-grade (group A [A–B1]) and high-grade (group B [B2, B3]) thymoma and thymic carcinoma (group C). Tumor volumetry was performed by either manual segmentation (3D-VDT) or longest diameter measurement (LD-VDT). RESULTS. Groups A, B, and C accounted for 15, 26, and nine tumors. The median LDVDT in group A was 703.6 days (range, 286.7–1855.9 days); group B, 412.1 days (range, 130.9–716.9 days...