A clinical study of thymic carcinomas

We reviewed ten patients with resected thymic carcinoma. The mean age was 55.0 years, ranging from 36 to 71 years, with five males and five females. The histological types were squamous cell carcinoma in 9 cases, and squamous cell carcinoma combined with small cell carcinoma in one case. One of the 10 patients was in stage I, 7 were in stage III, one was in stage IVa, and one was in stage IVb. Eight of the ten patients underwent complete resection, and induction chemotherapy was performed in one of the 8 cases, while induction chemoradiotherapy was performed in two of the 8 cases. Postoperative radiotherapy was performed in all cases (20-50 Gy). In recurrence cases, operation was positively performed for resectable cases. The five-year and ten-year survival rates were 78.7%, 52.5%, respectively. We expect that patients with thymic carcinoma can be cured completely or survive for long periods with multimodal therapy and resection of recurrences. (author)