TETRA - Thymic Epithelial Tumours; a Retrospective Analysis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Clinical, pathological and molecular genetic study of thymic epithelial neoplasms
IRAS ID
130147
Contact name
Research and Development Directorate Ground Floor, Education and Research Centre
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust
Research summary
Thymic epithelial tumours represent rare intrathoracic malignancies which can be invasive and refractory to conventional treatment. This group of tumour is subdivided into thymoma type A, AB, B1, B2, and B3, and thymic carcinoma by WHO classification, and each subtype has some clinical characteristics. Currently other than Masaoka stage system, there is no reliable pathological parameter to predict prognosis. The utility of mitotic count (MC) and proliferation index (PI) will be explored in approximately 100 thymic epithelial neoplasms. In light of the poor interobserver reproducibility criticism of the WHO classification scheme, MC is expected to offer a more objective prognostic indicator with satisfactory reproducibility. MC and PI are routinely used in a few tumour types for prognostication. However their use in thymic tumours has been hampered by prominent non-tumour inflammatory cell component. In this study, in order to overcome this problem, double staining of cytokeratins with Ki67 and PHH3, respectively, will be performed to specifically look at PI and MC in tumour cells. Although surgery is the mainstay of the curative-intent treatment for localised disease, patients with advanced stage, recurrent and metastatic disease have a poor prognosis, with no optimal treatment, and novel strategies are needed. This study also investigates frequency of clinically relevant mutations by mutation profiling, which can be a candidate of targeted therapy.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/0146
Date of REC Opinion
7 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion