Abstract
Thymomas are common mediastinal lesions, especially in association with myasthenia gravis. Here we report a material of 67 patients treated for thymoma. The incidence of myasthenia gravis was 43%. There was no difference in relapse-free survival for patients with or without myasthenia gravis, nor taken into concideration autoimmune diseases in general. Twenty-seven per cent had no symptoms of their tumor and this group fared better regarding relapse-free survival during a follow-up of nine years. There was no significant difference regarding survival neither for age, nor sex, however a significant difference was noted in relation to stage I–IV. Eighty-two per cent were macroscopically radically resected and 28% had some kind of further treatment, and in the latter group survival was significantly lower.
The patients are followed up to ten years. Twenty-one patients have passed away. Forty-five patients are alive with no evidence of disease. One patient is alive with disease.
Thymomas are often malignant (about 25%), but they rarely metastasize. Their malignant potential is demonstrated by a direct invasion of the lung, pericardium, blood vessels, and lymphatics.
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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Friström, K., Cervin, A., Enoksson, J.P., Albertsson, M., Johansson, L. (1997). Thymoma—Prognostic Factors and Outcome. In: Marx, A., Müller-Hermelink, H.K. (eds) Epithelial Tumors of the Thymus. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0033-3_46
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0033-3_46
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