Treatment and prognosis of thymoma: a review of 25 cases.

Experience of 25 patients with thymoma is reported. Based on the presence or absence of gross invasion 17 tumors were regarded as benign, 8 as malignant. All patients were operated on. Twenty-two had a complete excision, 2 a palliative excision, and 1 a biopsy only. Five patients received post-operative radiotherapy and 2 patients were given cytotoxic chemotherapy. None of the 17 patients with a benign thymoma had a recurrence or death due to thymoma during the follow-up. The five- and ten-year survival rates for malignant thymoma were 50% and 17%, respectively. Excision is the treatment of choice for all thymomas, since the prognosis for benign tumor is excellent and the malignancy can only by determined at exploration. Post-operative radiotherapy seems to be indicated in malignant thymoma. Myasthenia gravis and histologic features of thymoma have some value in predicting prognosis.