Mediastinal tumours. A follow-up study of 208 patients.
During the twenty-year period 1954--1973, 208 patients were referred to the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery for treatment of mediastinal tumours. Forty-nine patients had malignant tumours (24%), 86 benign tumours and 73 non-neoplastic lesions. The most common histologic types were neurogenic tumours and malignant lymphomas, followed by thymomas and germinal tumours. Most non-neoplastic lesions were cysts. The mediastinal tumours were often asymptomatic, the malignant tumours in 31%, the benign tumours and tumourlike lesions in 65% of the cases. The most common symptom was pain, which occurred in one-fifth of the patients. The most useful diagnostic method was X-ray examination of the chest. However, a final diagnosis could usually be made only at operation. Thirteen malignant tumours were excised radically, 18 palliatively and 18 were only biopsied. Almost all benign tumours were radically excised. Forty-four patients received postoperative radiation therapy and 6 received chemotherapy. The hospital mortality was 8.2% for the patients with malignant tumours and 1.9% for those with benign tumours. At the end of the follow-up period, which varied from 2 to 21 years (median 10.3 years), 41% of the patients with malignant tumours were alive. Two patients with benign tumours had died of an apparently malignant change in a neurofibroma.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000401:mortality; D012737:Sex Factors