[Lympho-epithelial thymoma. Anatomo-clinical and therapeutic study of 113 cases]

One hundred and thirteen cases of lympho-epithelial thymomas were studied retrospectively: 56 were of epithelial type, 20 of lymphocytic type, 30 were mixed and 7 were not defined. Eighty-eight were operated on (20 stages I, 47 stages II, 13 stages III and 8 stages IV). There were 69 primary resections (57 complete and 12 incomplete), followed by radiotherapy in 54 cases and 19 secondary resections after radiotherapy (10 complete and 19 incomplete). Twenty-five patients did not have an operation and were treated with radio- and chemotherapy. After primary resection the actuarial survival at 5 years was 64.07% and at 10 years 50.86%. After a secondary resection it was 43.74% at 5 years. After radiotherapy it was 18.67% at 5 years. In operated cases the prognostic importance of staging was confirmed. The cytological structure was not. In myasthenic cases the secondary respiratory complications worsened the prognosis. Post-operative radiotherapy seems to be justified in all cases, but its effect is not statistically significant when resection was complete. Those operated after radiotherapy only showed a benefit if the resection was complete. The outcome of metastatic disease in TLE has been under-estimated and seems to depend on local control of the tumour. The use of chemotherapy remains to be defined.