An increased risk of autoimmune disease was also noted when patients with preoperative infection, cancer, or autoimmune disease were excluded from the analysis.
‘The magnitude of death and cancer in patients who had undergone thymectomy was the biggest surprise for me,’ said first author Dr Kameron Kooshesh, speaking to the Harvard Gazette.‘The more we dug, the more we found. The results suggested to us that the lack of a thymus appears to perturb basic aspects of immune function.’, highlights only an association between the removal of the thymus and increased risk of cancer and death, not cause and effect.
However, writing in the NEJM, Dr Naomi Taylor, who was not involved in the study, said: ‘The pioneering research by Kooshesh et al. raises critical questions about the role of the aging thymus in human health. ‘It will be important to perform additional studies involving more ethnically diverse groups of patients who have undergone thymectomy and have been treated for indications that more closely match the conditions in the control group.
‘Overall, this study has important repercussions for the care of patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery and strongly argues against total thymectomy if it can be avoided.’