Your gift is 100% tax deductible
What Are the Risk Factors for Thymus Cancer?
No specific inherited, environmental, or lifestyle risk factors have been strongly linked to thymoma or thymic carcinoma. Some studies have suggested a possible link with exposure to radiation to the upper chest area, but this has not been confirmed.
What is a risk factor?
A risk factor is anything that increases your chances of getting a disease such as cancer. Different cancers have different risk factors. For example, exposing the skin to strong sunlight is a risk factor for skin cancer. Smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer and many others.
But having a known risk factor, or even several risk factors, does not mean that you will get the disease. And many people who get the disease may have few or no known risk factors.
Thymus cancer is rare, so it isn’t easy to study. Still, the only known risk factors are age and ethnicity.
Age
The risk of this type of cancer goes up with age. This type of cancer is rare in children and young adults, and is seen more often in middle-aged and older adults.
Ethnicity
In the US, this cancer is most common in Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders and least common in White and Latino people. It is more common in African Americans than in White people.
- Written by
- References
Developed by the American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team with medical review and contribution by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
Kaidar-Person O, Zagar T, Haithcock BE, Weiss J. Chapter 70: Diseases of the Pleura and Mediastinum. In: Niederhuber JE, Armitage JO, Doroshow JH, Kastan MB, Tepper JE, eds. Abeloff’s Clinical Oncology. 6th ed. Philadelphia, Pa. Elsevier: 2019.
Meneshian A, Oliver KR, Molina JR. Clinical presentation and management of thymoma and thymic carcinoma. UpToDate. 2024. Accessed at https://www.uptodate.com/contents/clinical-presentation-and-management-of-thymoma-and-thymic-carcinoma on October 18, 2024.
National Cancer Institute. Thymoma and Thymic Carcinoma Treatment (PDQ?)–Health Professional Version. 2024. Accessed at https://www.cancer.gov/types/thymoma/hp/thymoma-treatment-pdq on October 18, 2024.
Last Revised: December 6, 2024
American Cancer Society medical information is copyrighted material. For reprint requests, please see our Content Usage Policy.
American Cancer Society Emails
Sign up to stay up-to-date with news, valuable information, and ways to get involved with the American Cancer Society.