title: Chemotherapy and prognosis in advanced thymic carcinoma patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The role of chemotherapy in treating advanced thymic carcinoma is unclear. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the efficacy of chemotherapy and the prognostic factors for patients with advanced thymic carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review of the medical records of 86 patients treated with chemotherapy for advanced thymic carcinoma was conducted between 2000 and 2012 at our institution. The clinical characteristics, chemotherapy regimens and prognostic factors were analyzed. Survival curves were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method and the Cox proportional hazard model was used for multivariate analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 86 patients, 56 were male and 30 were female. The median survival time was 24.5 months. For the first-line chemotherapy treatment, the objective response rate was 47.7% and the disease control rate was 80.2%. The median progression-free survival for all patients was 6.5 months for first-line chemotherapy. No significant differences in progression-free survival were observed among the different chemotherapy regimens. Multivariate analyses revealed that the prognostic factors for overall survival included performance status (p=0.043), histology grade (p=0.048), and liver metastasis (p=0.047).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that there is no difference in efficacy between multiagent and doublet regimens. The prognosis of patients with advanced thymic carcinoma can be predicted based on histological grade, liver metastasis and performance status.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhengbo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xinmin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yiping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013945:Thymoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents