Eleven patients underwent operation for malignant thymoma between May 1989 and November 1993 at the department of the thoracic surgery, Korea Cancer Center Hospital (Eight patients had invasive thymoma and three patients had thymic carcinoma.).
Seven were male and four were female. Median age was 59 (ranged from 28 to 74). Most common symptoms were cough, sputum, dyspnea and chest discomfort.
The invasive thymoma patients were staged postoperatively as Stage Ⅱ:1, Stage Ⅲ:2, Stage Ⅳa:4, Stage Ⅳb:1. The thymic carcinoma patients were staged;Stage Ⅰ:1, Stage Ⅲ:1, Stage Ⅳb:1 (by Masaoka's clinical staging).
Two patients had Myasthenia gravis and one patient had Pure Red Cell Aplasia as well as thymic carcinoid tumor. Thymic carcinoma patients had no associated disease. Ten patients underwent total tumor resection and only one patient underwent
palliative
tumor resection. There was no operative mortality and morbidity. The most common invaded organs were the pleura, pericardium, phrenic nerve and lung.
Adjuvant radiotherapy was recommanded for 6 patients and adjuvant chemotherapy for one patient. One patient required reoperation for recurred invasive thymonma after 20 months.
Median follow up time was 21 months. Nine patients are still alive, including all thymic carcinoma patients.
We concluded that total tumor resection with complete thymectomy, followed by radiotherapy is the one of best therapeutic modality in the management for invasive thymoma as well as thymic carcinoma.
(Korean J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1995;28:475-80)
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