All articles tagged with #thymic health
AI analysis of CT scans shows adults with healthier thymus tissue have around 50% lower risk of death, 63% lower risk of heart disease, and 36% lower risk of lung cancer, challenging the idea that the thymus shrinks and becomes irrelevant after puberty; a second study also linked thymic health to better responses to cancer immunotherapy, suggesting thymus health could help gauge aging risk and guide treatment.
A large real-world and TRACERx NSCLC study shows radiographically assessed thymic health, quantified by a deep-learning CT system, strongly associates with better progression-free and overall survival in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors across several cancers. Thymic health performed comparably to established biomarkers like PD-L1 and tumor mutational burden in prognostication, and its link to T cell receptor diversity and immune pathways supports its relevance as a host-immune biomarker and potential target for timing and strategies to boost immunotherapy efficacy.
A deep-learning CT‑based thymic health score was developed and applied to 27,612 adults in NLST and the Framingham Heart Study. Higher thymic health was consistently associated with lower all-cause mortality, reduced lung cancer incidence, and lower cardiovascular mortality; thymic health also correlated with lifestyle factors and systemic inflammation, supporting the thymus as an active driver of immune health in adulthood and a potential target for healthy aging strategies.