Diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of thymoma: an analysis of 116 cases / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the diagnosis and treatment of thymoma and to assess its prognostic factors.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The clinical data of 116 patients with thymoma were collected. A retrospective analysis was performed, by comparing the survival rate calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method with the rate of recurrence or metastasis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The standard posteroanterior and lateral chest radiographs were reliable means of detection of most thymomas. Myasthenia gravis was the most commonly paraneoplastic disease (25.0%, 29/116). The extensive radical resection was beneficial for reducing the rate of recurrence of stage I or stage II thymomas (chi(2) = 4.941, P = 0.0219). The survival time could be prolonged by postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy. There was a strong correlation between the clinical stage and the histological classification (according to MH classification), through which the invasive behavior of thymoma could be predicted (chi(2) = 19.76, P = 0.007, RR = 1.47). The 3- 5- and 10-year survival rates were 81.2%, 67.9%, and 40.5%, respectively. Statistical analysis showed a significant negative correlation between the stage and the survival rate (chi(2) = 29.73, P = 0.0000, RR = 0.15).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The prognosis of thymoma depends mainly on the histological classification, clinical stage and multimodality treatment rather than on the paraneoplastic diseases.</p>