Objective: We analyzed clinicopathologic characters and long-term results of 11 thymic epithelial tumors.
Methods: Five cases of thymic carcinoma and 6 cases of thymoma treated in our hospital from September 1991 to June 2002 were retrospectively analyzed.
Results: The histological subtypes of thymic carcinoma were basaloid carcinoma in 2 cases, epidermoid non-keratinizing carcinoma in 1 case, undifferentiated carcinoma in 1 case and sarcomatoid carcinoma in 1 case. Four cases underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Three cases underwent midsternal thoracotomy, 1 had total resection and 2 had exploratory thoracotomy due to tumor invasion of the right upper lobe and cardiac sac. Two cases of basaloid carcinoma had been alive more than 10 years since the operation. The histological subtypes of thymoma were 1, 2, 1, 1 and 1 cases with type A, AB, B 1, B 2 and B 3. All cases underwent midsternal thoracotomy, 4 cases had thymothymectomy and 2 cases had extended thymothymectomy. Five cases have been alive since the operation. Strong immunoreactivity for bcl-2 and p 53 expression of epidermoid non-keratinizing carcinoma and undifferentiated carcinoma were seen. ki-67 labeling index of epidermoid non-keratinizing carcinoma and undifferentiated carcinoma and type B 3 thymoma were higher than those of the other carcinomas and thymomas.