Thymoma: surgical results of 73 cases.

PURPOSE

Thymomas are uncommon tumours; they represent a broad spectrum of morphological and clinical behaviour. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that influence survival.

METHOD

Seventy-three patients with thymoma who underwent thymectomy between 1980 and 2002 were reviewed. Prognostic factors assessed were: age, sex, presenting symptoms, histological features, stage at diagnosis and extent of surgical resection.

RESULTS

Complete resection was achieved in 67 patients and incomplete in 6. Survival rates of patients in the 1st or 2nd stages were 100% and 92.8% for 10 years, respectively. A high incidence of myasthenia gravis (MG) associated thymomas (80.8%) was found. These patients had better survival rates when compared to non-myasthenic patients. However the mortality rate for malign thymomas was high (65.7%) due to tumoral invasion. The histological types of thymoma did not influence the survival rate.

CONCLUSIONS

The association of MG with thymoma enables earlier detection of tumour, thus higher survival rates were achieved in these patients. Survival was also related to the stage of the tumour at diagnosis and the completeness of resection.