[Radiotherapy of the thymoma (author's transl)]

A report is given on 24 thymomas irradiated between 1971 and 1980. Ten patients were irradiated after a radical thymectomy, three after partial resection and eleven after histologic diagnosis alone The patients were treated by different irradiation methods, mostly with the photons of a Co60 unit and a 43 MeV betatron. The average focal dose was 45 Gy which were administered within five weeks. The observation period was five years on an average. The general five year survival probability was 54%; some partial collectives were evaluated individually. These studies show that by unique radiotherapy, too, a two-year survival rate of 100% and a five-year survival rate of 50% as sell as a local recurrence rate of about 20% can be reached. Patients under fourty years with epithelial thymomas and a dose of less than 40 Gy have a less favorable prognosis. Compared to other authors, a relatively high rate of remote metastases was observed which necessitated extensive follow-up measures and suggests an adjuvant chemotherapy.