Prognostic factors for survival in patients with thymic epithelial tumors.

BACKGROUND: Aim of the study was to identify and evaluate the prognostic efficacy of standard clinicopathological factors of thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) for treatment-related outcomes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients treated between 1993-2008 at Ege University Faculty of Medicine Departments of Radiation Oncology and Thoracic Surgery were reviewed retrospectively.

RESULTS: Forty-seven patients with a median age of 51 (range: 24-72) were identified. Complete resection was performed in 23 (51.1%), incomplete resection with microscopic residues in 17 (37.8%), subtotal resection with gross residues in 2 (4.4%) and biopsy in 5 (11.1%) patients. Radiotherapy was administered to 39 (83%) patients. Median follow-up duration was 51 months (range: 3-168 months). Five-year local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) rates were 93%, 90% and 85% for thymoma and 80%, 66% and 72% for thymic carcinoma patients, respectively. In multivariate analysis, the extent of resection was the only significant prognostic factor for OS (P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: The most important prognostic factor for overall survival was the extent of resection. Further studies with larger numbers of patients are required to confirm the prognostic factors and to obtain a better understanding of the biological behavior of TETs.