CXCR4 overexpression correlates with poor prognosis in myasthenia gravis-associated thymoma

Thymoma is 1 rare type of tumor developed on the thymic epithelium; patients with thymoma also might have myasthenia gravis (MG). Because of the scarcity and complexity of MG-associated thymoma, its pathogenesis and etiology still remain unclear nowadays. The expression of C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) is absent or low in most healthy tissues but highly expressed in various types of tumors. Here, to determine the prognostic significance of CXCR4 in MG-associated thymoma, a total of 84 tissue samples were retrospectively examined. Our data demonstrated that CXCR4 was strongly associated with worse overall survival (hazard ratio, 2.11; 95% confidence interval, 1.08-4.11) and disease-free survival (hazard ratio, 1.84; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-3.29). Furthermore, both univariate and multivariate analyses confirmed that CXCR4 was an independent factor in predicting unfavorable overall survival. In conclusion, our findings suggest that CXCR4 might contribute to the clinical cancer progression, and CXCR4 could be a valuable prognostic biomarker in the therapy of MG-associated thymoma. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.