As part of the 2nd international thymic malignancy awareness month this May, ITMIG (International Thymic Malignancy Interest Group) hosted a webinar entitled: “Questions I’d like to ask my doctor” for thymic cancer patients.

The questions were answered by doctors:

• Conrad Falkson, Radiation Oncologist, Queen’s University and CCSEO @ KHSC Kingston, Canada
• Dirk Van Raemdonck, Thoracic surgeon, University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium
• Arun Rajan, Medical Oncologist, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
• Edith Marom, Diagnostic Radiologist, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel

If you weren’t able to attend the webinar live, you can watch the recording below now.  Some of the questions include:

• How often should I receive follow-up with my thoracic surgeon to monitor any reoccurrence of my Thymoma?
• Losing my thymus as an adult will I have less immune defenses? Am I at a disadvantage compared to someone with a thymus?
• Is recurrence of thymoma more likely if you only have clear margins of less than 1mm or are there other factors?
• What is the value of adding anti-angiogenesis drugs to standard triple chemotherapy?
• What is the role of steroids in managing thymoma?
• What do you know about thymic carcinoma and how much controlled randomised trials have you done regarding it?
• Is a thymic cyst different from a thymoma? Should I be having scans for it?
• Are there any studies or statistics on the rate of recurrence in Thymoma patients that have had biopsies prior to thysectomy vs those that have not had biopsies?