For generations, medicine dismissed the thymus as a childhood organ whose purpose expired with youth — but researchers at Mass General Brigham are now demonstrating that this quiet gland behind the breastbone continues to shape immune resilience, and perhaps survival itself, well into adulthood. In studying over a thousand lung cancer patients, they found that incidental radiation damage to the thymus during treatment was quietly undermining the very immune defenses patients needed most. The discovery asks oncology to reconsider a long-held assumption: that destroying a tumor is sufficient, wh
Shielding thymus during lung cancer radiation may improve survival outcomes
Patients with lung cancer receiving standard radiotherapy experience compromised immune function and reduced survival when the thymus receives incidental radiation exposure.