Prognostic factors in thymic epithelial tumors undergoing complete resection.
BACKGROUND
The prognostic factors in thymic epithelial tumors (TET) are investigated within a 27-year period in 104 patients submitted to surgical and pathologic complete resection of TET with a mean age of 53 +/- 14.6 years and a male to female ratio of 0.73.


METHODS
The medical records of all patients were reviewed and six variables that could affect the short-term and long-term survival were entered into a Cox regression model. Follow-up was obtained from medical records and telephone contacts up to September 2004 or until the patient's death.


RESULTS
Overall 5-year and 10-year survival was 83% and 78%, respectively. Univariate Cox regression analysis showed that long survival was affected by the age of the patient at the time of operation, the response of myasthenia gravis to the operation, the tumor recurrence, the histologic type according to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification, and the Masaoka stage. Multivariate analysis revealed that recurrence of the tumor (p = 0.001), Masaoka stages II or III (p < 0.001), elder age of the patient at the time of operation (p = 0.045), and presence of the WHO histologic types B2 or B3 (p = 0.05) were bad prognostic factors.


CONCLUSIONS
Recurrence of the tumor, the Masaoka staging, the WHO histologic type, and the age of the patient at the time of operation were the most important prognosticators for patients with TET submitted to complete resection of their tumor.
Zisis
Charalambos
C
Department of Thoracic Surgery and Pathology, Evangelismos Hospital, Athens, Greece. chzisis@otenet.gr
Rontogianni
Dimitra
D
Tzavara
Chara
C
Stefanaki
Kalliopi
K
Chatzimichalis
Antonios
A
Loutsidis
Antonios
A
Iliadis
Kosmas
K
Kontaxis
Argirios
A
Dosios
Theodosios
T
Bellenis
Ion
I
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000453:epidemiology; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000453:epidemiology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery