1993 Volume 7 Issue 2 Pages 104-111
We report 7 cases of thymic carcinoma (4 squamous cell carcinomas and 3 undifferentiated carcinomas). Two of these patients had complete resection, 4 had partial resection, and 1 biopsy only. Adjuvant therapy consisted of chemotherapy in 5 patients and radiation therapy in 6 patients. A squamous cell carcinoma, a specific type arising in a thymic cyst, was treated with resection followed by radiation at a dose of 50 Gy. The patient is alive and well with no evidence of disease 10 years after treatment. However, the remaining 3 patients with squamous cell carcinoma died within 17 months ; 2 of their disease and one of an unrelated cause. One patient with undifferentiated carcinoma underwent resection of the primary tumor and pulmo-nary metastases, and received 5 cycles of combination chemotherapy with cisplatin, bleomycin and vinblastin. The patient died of malignant lymophoma 8 years after surgery. The remain-ing 2 patiets with undifferentiated carcinoma died of the disease 13 and 23 months after the initial diagnosis.
