Tumors Of The Thymic Epithelium: A Report Of 32 Cases

Objective:Tumor of the thymic epithelium is one of common primary mediastinal tumors,with diverse biological and morphological characters.It is of great significance to determine whether the thymoma is benign or malignant,because the treatment for the benign thymoma is different from the treatment for the malignant one.Method:thirty-two patient of tumors of the thymic epithelium,surgically intervened and pathologically confirmed in Shandong Provincial Hospital through march 2004 to September 2008,were retrospectively analyzed.Among the total 32 patient,24 patient underwent gross total resection,5 had subtotal resection,and 3 exploratory thoracotomy and biopsy alone.Result:In this series there was no perioperative death.The pathological findings were type A in 1,type AB in 4,type B1 in 3,type B2 in 4,type B3 in 6,type C in 14. Through 7 to 56 months follow-up,there were no postoperative recurrence,metastasis and death in patients of benign thymomas.It is respective 18 months and 31 months after the surgery that two patients of malignant thymomas died.Conclusions:The masaoka clinical stage and the WHO pathological type of thymomas correlate with each other.The first choice of treatment is total resection, and operation will be only for biopsy or the extenuation of symptom when it is impossible.But it is necessary to excise the tumor as much as we can.Combined therapy include surgery can bring us a better prognosis.