Investigation of prognostic factors in complete thymoma resection outcomes: A single-center case series analysis

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the factors influencing prognosis in cases with thymoma resected totally. The data of 99 patients with thymoma following a surgery on anterior mediastinal lesions were evaluated in clinical records. Ages at the time of surgery, presence of myasthenia gravis, types of surgery, tumor sizes, capsular invasion, WHO histopathological classification, Masaoka-Koga staging, and adjuvant treatments were documented. Pearson chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and Fisher-Freeman-Halton test were used for significance levels. The variables of age at surgery and tumor size were not significant for overall survival time (p > 0.001). For postoperative treatment, the disease-free survival time of the group that received radiotherapy was determined to be higher than that of the groups which received chemotherapy and chemo-radiotherapy (p < 0.001). A 1-unit decrease in age at surgery was calculated to increase the risk over disease-free survival by 1.143 times. When radiotherapy was taken as a reference in postoperative treatment, the presence of chemotherapy was found to increase disease-free survival time risk by 26.601 times while the presence of chemo-radiotherapy by 25.230 times. It was found that the risk over disease-free survival time significantly increased along with a decrease in the tumor size. It was statistically observed that adjuvant chemotherapy increased the risk of recurrence for complete thymothymectomies. In addition, as a postoperative treatment option, radiotherapy on its own provided a positive contribution to recurrence and survival.