The Effect of Prior Cancer on Survival of Patients With Thymoma

Thymoma is an uncommon intrathoracic malignant tumor and has a long natural history, with overall survival (OS) in these patients lasting decades. It is uncertain whether the survival of a patient with thymoma is affected by their prior cancer history (PCH). Finding out the impact of PCH on thymoma survival has important implications for both decision-making and research.

The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database was queried for patients with thymoma diagnosed between 1975 and 2015. Kaplan-Meier methods and the Cox proportional hazards model were used to analyze OS across a variety of stages, ages, and treatment methods, in patients both with and without PCH.

A total of 3604 patients with thymoma were identified, including 507 (14.1%) with a PCH. The 10-year survival rate of patients with a PCH (53.8%) was worse than that of those without a PCH (40.32%; 95% CI, 35.24%-45.33%; P < .0001). However, adjusted analyses showed that the impact of a PCH was heterogenous across ages and treatment methods. In subset analyses, PCH was associated with worse survival among patients who were treated with chemoradiotherapy (HR, 2.80; 95% CI, 1.51-5.20; P = .001) and among those who were ≤ 65 years (HR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.02-1.73; P = .036).

PCH provides an inferior OS for patients with thymoma. However, it does not worsen the survival in some subgroups, and these patients with thymoma may be eligible for study.