Aims: Thymic carcinoma is a rare and invasive mediastinal tumor, with poor prognosis. The optimal treatment for thymic carcinoma is not well defined currently.
Methods: A single-institution retrospective study of patients operated for thymic carcinoma between 1996 and 2011 was conducted. Survival curves were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method. The Cox proportional hazard model was used for multivariate analysis.
Results: Seventy-six patients underwent surgery for thymic carcinoma. Masaoka stage was I in 11 patients, II in 20, III in 32, IVa in 13. A complete resection (R0) was achieved in 59 patients. Adjuvant radio/chemotherapy was offered to 58 patients. The 5-year disease-free survival rate and overall survival rate for all the patients were 59.7% and 66.2%, respectively. Patients with incomplete resection had a significantly worse disease-free survival and overall survival as compared to complete resection with univariate analyses (both p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that complete resection and Masaoka stage were statistically associated with disease-free survival and overall survival (p = 0.005 and 0.013 with complete resection; p = 0.006 and 0.009 with Masaoka stage).
Conclusions: Our result indicated that complete resection and Masaoka stage could impact the disease-free survival and overall survival of patients with thymic carcinoma after surgical resection.
Keywords: Masaoka staging system; Prognosis; Surgery; Thymic carcinoma.
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