Surgical treatment of thymus carcinoma: A clinical analysis of 58 patients

Objective To study the clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, surgical procedures and postoperative adjuvant treatment of thymus carcinoma. Methods General conditions, surgical procedures and survival time of 58 thymus carcinoma patients admitted to our department from January 1992 to January 2012 were retrospectively analyzed. Results Fifty-eight thymus carcinoma patients (42 males and 16 females) were included in this study with a male and female ratio of 2.63:1. Their disease onset age was 18 -75 years (mean 52 years). The main clinical manifestation was chest pain in 21 patients, cough in 4 patients, double eyelid droop in 3 patients, hoarseness in 1 patient, and no obvious symptoms in 29 patients. CT scanning showed that the anterior superior mediastinum was occupied in all patients diagnosed with thymus carcinoma before operation. Of the patients who underwent surgical treatment, 51 received complete resection, 5 received partial resection and 2 received biopsy. No death occurred during the perioperative period. The patients were followed up for 1-10 years and the follow-up rate was 75.86% (44/58). Five patients died within 1 year after surgery, 15 patients within 3 years after surgery, 22 within 5 years after surgery, 29 within 10 years after surgery, and 15 patients were still alive at the time when we wrote this paper. The 1-, 3 -, 5- and 10-year survival rate were 89.1%, 63.3%, 36.1% and 5.4%, respectively. The average survival time of the patients was 56 months. Conclusion The pathogenesis of thymus carcinoma is unclear. The 5-year survival rate of thymus carcinoma patients is low and their prognosis is poor. Its main treatment modality is surgical resection combined with chemotherapy.