ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neuromuscular Disorders and Peripheral Neuropathies
Methylprednisolone pulse versus docetaxel in recurrent thymoma with myasthenia gravis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
- 2People's Hospital of Shijiazhuang, Shijiazhuang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study aims to compare the effectiveness and safety of methylprednisolone pulse versus docetaxel in treating recurrent thymoma with myasthenia gravis (MG). We conducted a single-center, open-label, retrospective study that included 90 patients with thymoma recurrence accompanied by MG, who were treated with either methylprednisolone pulse or docetaxel. Compared the improvement rate of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America Post-intervention Status (MGFA-PIS) and Quantitative Myasthenia Gravis Score (QMGS), changes in acetylcholine receptor antibodies (AchR-AB), and alterations in thymoma after treatment. Adverse events were also recorded. Both treatments significantly reduced QMGS and AchR-AB levels (P < 0.05). For MG, the overall effective rate (ORR) was similar between groups (P>0.05). However, the methylprednisolone group showed a higher objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) for thymoma (P<0.05). The incidence of adverse reaction incidence was 66.7% for the methylprednisolone group and 44.4% for the docetaxel group (P < 0.05). Methylprednisolone is more effective against thymoma than docetaxel for recurrent thymoma with MG, but has greater side effects. Docetaxel has similar MG efficacy compared to methylprednisolone, and with fewer side effects. The choice of treatment should be based on the patient's specific clinical situation.
Keywords: Recurrent thymoma, Myasthenia Gravis, Methylprednisolone pulse, DOCETAXEL, Effectiveness and safety
Received: 21 Apr 2025; Accepted: 03 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Wang, Pan, Liu, Cheng and Qi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guoyan Qi
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.