2003 Volume 43 Issue 4 Pages 335-340
Background. Standard treatment for advanced thymic carcinoma has notyetbeen established, and the prognosis is very poor. Case. A 49-year-old man suffered from undifferentiated thymic carcinoma with superficial cervical lymph node metastasis, corresponding to stage NB of Masaoka' s classification. He was treated with two cycles of chemotherapy consisting of paclitaxel and carboplatin, and concurrent radiotherapy of 40 Gy. The reduction rate of the tumor size was 77.4%, enabling it to be completely resected. The pathologicalexamination revealed neither residual tumor cells in the resected specimen nor lymph node metastasis. Two cycles of postoperative chemotherapy with the same regimen and concurrent radiotherapy of 20 Gy were added. Conclusion. Preoperative chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin, and concurrent radiotherapy might be effective in advancedthymic carcinoma.
