Myasthenia gravis and thymic neoplasms: A brief review

Thymoma is the most common mediastinal tumor. They have varied presentation ranging from asymptomatic incidental mediastinal masses to locally extensive tumor with compressive symptoms and distant metastases. They have frequent association with various paraneoplastic syndromes (PNS). The most common PNS associated with thymoma is myasthenia gravis (MG). Patients of thymoma with MG have a favourable outcome due to early disclosure of the disease. Histologically they are classified into five subtypes and Masaoka-Koga staging system is used for staging. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy play an important role along with anti-myasthenia drugs. This review would like to highlight the association of thymoma with MG and associated clinical and therapeutic issues.