Thymic carcinoma (report of 14 cases)

This paper reports of 14 cases of thymic carcinoma. Most of them with symptoms of chest pain, chest stuffy and discomfort, but without combined with extrathoracic syndromes. The tumors always were large in size and frequently invaded adjacent organs, hence with low resection rate. In this series, complete resection of tumor only 2 cases, partial resection in 7 cases, exploratory thoracotomy in 5 cases. Thymic carcinoma was an extremely malignant tumor with extensive invasion intrathoracally and early metastasis extrathoracally. The common sites of metastasis were bone, liver, lung and extrathoracic lymph nodes. Adjuvant therapy postoperatively was given to all patients. Follow-up of 1-8 years showed 10 cases death, of which 5 cases died within the first year after surgery, 3 cases within the second year. Four patients were still alive so far, in which 3 patients were within 1.5 years postoperatively. Pathological studies revealed 9 cases of squamous epithelial cell thymic carcinoma, 3 of lymphoepithelioma-like thymic carcinoma and 2 of small cell undifferentiate thymic carcinoma.