Treatment and prognosis of thymoma: A review of 25 cases

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Abstract
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 be 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.