Two new Nature studies came out last week about the thymus and how it is associated with cancer and heart disease risk.

I did a lot of research while making a video on the subject and wanted to share.

The first Nature study analyzed CT scans from 27,000+ adults across two cohorts. People with healthier thymuses had ~50% lower mortality, 63% lower cardiovascular death, and 36% lower lung cancer risk — even after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, BMI, diabetes, and heart disease. Thymic health also tracked with metabolic markers: higher HDL was good, higher triglycerides/glucose/blood pressure/BMI/inflammation were all bad. Physical inactivity and smoking were both independently harmful.

The second Nature paper found cancer patients with healthier thymuses responded better to immunotherapy across multiple cancer types — independent of tumor biomarkers.

Both are observational. Associations, not causation.

If you are interested in the video I made its available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvLbtWBT-GQ