Management of thymoma. A retrospective study

Thymoma is a relatively rare tumour. Twelve cases seen in Kuwait Cancer Control Centre over a period of 10 years were analyzed. Two patients had Myasthenia gravis at presentation, and one developed it after the treatment, during remission. Six patients had total resection and four had subtotal resection of the tumour; the remaining had only diagnostic biopsy. All the six patients who had total resection were alive, disease-free with three of them Stage III, whereas, of the four cases who had subtotal resection two are dead, one with local disease and the other with pulmonary metastases. Eight patients were given postoperative radiotherapy and none of them relapsed at the primary site. Of the three patients who had chemotherapy, two had partial remission, and the remaining one failed to show any response. Patients with predominantly epithelial type histology fared worse compared to predominantly lymphocytic type and mixed cell type. Histological subtypes, invasiveness of the tumour and completeness of resection and association of Myasthenia gravis as prognostic features are discussed. The role of radiotherapy and chemotherapy as adjunctive treatment to surgery is reviewed.