Intuitive evaluation of contemporary management strategies in thymoma — the largest Indian experience

BACKGROUND: The aim was perusal of the treatment strategies, clinical outcomes and factors impacting these outcomes in thymoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 119 patients diagnosed and treated cases of thymoma, at our hospital, were taken for analysis. Thirty-one patients were excluded due to inadequate medical records. Descriptive statistics were used to report demographic and clinical characteristics. Time period between diagnosis and death was defined as overall survival (OS). Multivariate analysis (MVA), using cox regression modelling, was done by including clinicopathological factors in a bid to identify prognostic factors influencing OS. SPSS version 26 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 52.17 years and 39 (44.3%), 19 (21.6%), 17 (1.3%) and 13 (4.8%) patients presented with Masaoka stage II, IV, III and I, respectively. Surgery was done in 64 (72.7%) of the patients as a part of the treatment strategy. Radiotherapy was administered to a total of 57 patients with a median dose of 50.4 Gy. Early Masaoka stage at presentation and use of surgery in the treatment plan were statistically significant prognostic factors for a better overall survival on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Judicious use of radiotherapy and chemotherapy in locally advanced cases may render them resectable. In a bid to gain good survival rates, aggressive multimodality treatment should be offered to the patients.