Expression of podoplanin in thymoma: its correlation with tumor invasion, nodal metastasis, and poor clinical outcome.

Recent studies have shown that podoplanin overexpression is associated with lymph node metastasis and poor clinical outcome in several malignant tumors. To investigate the role of podoplanin in thymoma, we examined 111 thymomas by immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibody D2-40, which recognizes podoplanin. The tumors consisted of 8 type A, 40 type AB, 15 type B1, 23 type B2, 15 type B3, and 10 combined thymomas according to the World Health Organization histological classification system and of 41 stage I, 28 stage II, 16 stage III, 20 stage IVa, and 6 stage IVb thymomas according to the Masaoka staging system.