Life Sciences & Medicine Active Updated Aug 4, 2026
A once-dismissed organ turns out to guard against cancer and heart disease
The thymus shrinks by adulthood and was long written off as an immune cell graveyard with nothing left to do. A Harvard-led deep learning analysis of CT scans from more than 27,000 people now links thymic health to sharply lower risk of death, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease, reopening the question of whether a supposedly spent organ still actively protects the body.
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Aug 4, 2026 Latest
A Harvard-led team under oncologist Hugo Aerts scored thymus health from CT scans of more than 27,000 people in the Framingham Heart Study and National Lung Screening Trial and found high thymic health carried roughly 50 percent lower 12-year mortality, 36 percent lower lung cancer risk, and 63 to 92 percent lower cardiovascular death risk than low thymic health, after adjusting for age, sex and smoking.
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