After Yolanda Cartusciello and her husband were taken to the Emergency Department at NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn following a car accident, routine tests revealed the presence of a stage 2 thymoma resting on top of Cartusciello’s heart. Thymomas are rare cancers that form on the surface of the thymus.

Travis C. Geraci, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a thoracic surgeon at Perlmutter Cancer Center—Sunset Park, removed Cartusciello’s thymoma along with a tumor found in her uterus.

“Thymomas are dangerous because they don’t create a lot of symptoms, so patients aren’t aware that they’re there,” Dr. Geraci tells News 12 Brooklyn. “It’s a very, very rare tumor of the anterior chest. It’s about 1.5 cases per million people.”

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