[Thymoma: anatomo-clinical and therapeutic aspects. Analysis of our 26 cases]

The paper reports the authors' personal experience with regard to 26 cases of thymoma treated surgically over the past 10 years. 96% of cases were associated with myasthenia gravis. Surgery was performed in all cases and 13 cases (50%) underwent additional RT. 92% of patients were affected by invasive thymoma (11 stage II cases, and 13 stage III). From an histological point of view, 38.5% of cases were epithelial-type thymomas, 38.5% were lymphoepithelial and 23% were lymphocytic. Survival was influenced by the stage of disease and the radicality of surgery. At present, 76% of patients are still alive between 10 months and 10 years of surgery. There was a perioperative mortality of 11.5% (3 cases), whereas 2 patients died some 2 months later due to pulmonary embolism. The paper also includes a critical review of the most recent literature, and the authors compare their experience with that of other centres.