Residual Thymus

[ladybugs40]

My son had chest pain and went to a hospital out of town.  They checked him for heart trouble and it came back good.  They did a CT of the chest and told him he had a 2.9 cm. mediastinal mass.  An Oncoligist talked with him and told him he needed a biopsy of the mass.  He wanted to come back to his home town and see a Thoracic Suregon.  The suregon had a radioligist in our home town to read the original films and they did not agree.  They said they believe it is Residual Thymus.  I am very confused and need some advise as what to do.  Does the residual thymus need to be taken out and should I request the doctors still do a biopsy just to be on the safe side.
  

[joek39]

I was diagnosed at age 44 with a carcinoid tumor of the thymus gland.  Very rare, slow growing cancer that I caught only because it was wrapped around my left phrenic nerve which controls the diagphragm and breathing on the left side - couldn't breath well - got an xray - saw the diaphagm in the wrong position and eventually found the abnormal mass with a CT scan.  Surgery removed it.

By all means, get the mass biopsied.  The thymus gland grows until a person reaches puberty, then slowly shuts down , actually dimenishes in size over time.  In some folks, cannot even locate it once they get to be 40-50 years old.  The thymus gland is important in T-cell production, part of the bodies immune system, but you can definitely live without it.

get the biopsy - several different cancers can attack the thymus (called thynomas)

good luck, let me know

- Joe

[dsledge]

can you help? carciniod and the thymus, those to words together scary