Persistent and aggressive treatment for thymic carcinoma. Results of a single-institute experience with 25 patients.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to retrospectively evaluate the role of several therapies, mainly chemotherapy, for thymic carcinoma (TC).


METHODS
From July 1973 to July 2005, 25 patients (15 males and 10 females) with histologically proven TC were treated at our department. The median age of the patients was 59 years, with a range of from 30 to 78 years. According to Masaoka's staging system, there was 1 stage I patient, 3 stage II, 7 stage III, 6 stage IVa, and 8 stage IVb patients. The histological subtype was in all cases squamous cell carcinoma, nonkeratinizing type.


RESULTS
There were 6 complete surgical resections, 1 incomplete resection followed by chemoradiotherapy, 6 with radiotherapy alone, 3 with radiotherapy plus chemotherapy, and 9 with chemotherapy alone as the initial treatment. Eighteen patients were administered second-line therapy. The regimen obtaining the best response rate was doublet chemotherapy consisting of carboplatin (CBDCA) and paclitaxel. The median survival time and survival rate at 5 years for the patients excluding surgical cases with stage I/II disease were 32 months and 31%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The doublet of CBDCA and paclitaxel thus appears to be a promising regimen for TC and further investigation in a multi-institutional phase II trial is, therefore, strongly called for.
Maruyama
Riichiroh
R
Department of Thoracic Oncology, Kyushu Cancer Center, Fukuoka, Japan.
Suemitsu
Ryuichi
R
Okamoto
Tatsuro
T
Kojo
Miyako
M
Aoki
Yoshiro
Y
Wataya
Hiroshi
H
Eguchi
Takashi
T
Nishiyama
Kenichi
K
Seto
Takashi
T
Ichinose
Yukito
Y
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016190:Carboplatin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000628:therapy*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D017239:Paclitaxel / Q000008:administration & dosage; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013945:Thymoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000628:therapy*; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D016190:Carboplatin; D017239:Paclitaxel