Treatment and prognosis of thymoma: A review of 25 cases

Abstract

Experience of 25 patients with thymoma is reported. Based on the presence or absence of gross invasion 17 tumors were regarded as benign, 8 as malignant. All patients were operated on. Twenty-two had a complete excision, 2 a palliative excision, and 1 a biopsy only. Five patients received post-operative radiotherapy and 2 patients were given cytotoxic chemotherapy. None of the 17 patients with a benign thymoma had a recurrence or death due to thymoma during the follow-up. The five- and ten-year survival rates for malignant thymoma were 50% and 17%, respectively. Excision is the treatment of choice for all thymomas, since the prognosis for benign tumor is excellent and the malignancy can only by determined at exploration. Post-operative radiotherapy seems to be indicated in malignant thymoma. Myasthenia gravis and histologic features of thymoma have some value in predicting prognosis.

Thymoma in a Java sparrow(Padda oryzivora)

“…It had been thought that histopathological examination was of little value in predicting aggressiveness, and that invasiveness was the only useful prognostic indicator (Appelqvist et al, 1982;Shamji et al, 1984). Previously reported avian thymoma was thought to be malignant because of its capsular involvement and infiltration of the mediastinal fat (Zubaidy, 1980).…”

Outcome in excised thymomas: role of prognostic factors and impact of additional malignancies on survival

“…However, Appelqvist et al suggests that when associated with MG, thymic tumours have a worse prognosis. 13 A medistinal mass on chest X-ray may represent a diagnosis of thymoma. However, the differential diagnosis includes a wide range of neoplasms, e.g.…”

Timoma: discussão sobre tratamento e prognóstico

“…O valor prognóstico da MG é controverso. Afirma-se que pacientes com MG têm pior prognóstico (19) . A maior taxa de óbito foi atribuída à mortalidade perioperatória elevada.…”

“…Após ressecção completa, a recorrência localizada de timoma encapsulado só ocorre excepcionalmente (42,43) , com prognóstico excelente, tendo sido descritas taxas de sobrevida de mais de 90% em cinco anos (8,19) . A melhor técnica de exposição operatória é obtida utilizando-se esternotomia mediana (28) .…”