Establishment of multi-center database on thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) and current situation in Korea

The Korean Association for Research on the Thymus (KART) was established in January 2014 with the following members: Asan Medical Center, Samsung Seoul hospital, Seoul national university hospital and Severance hospital, known to be the top four hospitals with the most amount of surgical cases on thymic epithelial tumor (TET). The aim of KART is to establish a multi-center TET database and present the clinical features and treatment outcomes in Korea. The KART database which was based on the International Thymic Malignancy Interest Group (ITMIG) database system included 1,462 cases of retrospectively collected thymoma and thymic carcinoma from Jan 2000 to Dec 2013. Masaoka-Koga stage I consisted of 34%, stage IIA 22% and stage IIB 17%. The overall 5- and 10-year survival rates were 90% and 76% respectively. As the Masaoka-Koga stage progressed, the survival rates decreased. Through the collaboration of ITIMG, 1,327 cases from KART were registered in the database of Cancer Research And Biostatistics (CRAB) in 2019. The Korean Association for Thoracic Surgical Oncology (KATSO) is the only organization in which all thoracic surgeons in South Korea are registered. Because KART was established with the purpose of collecting data on a national scale, KART is in collaboration to produce a nationwide database system with KATSO. The new database system is planning to collaborate with the ITMIG CRAB database and will adopt a TNM staging system developed in parallel to the Masaoka-Koga system. Data is planned on being collected retrospectively and prospectively and KART data will be the foundation of the retrospective data. Once the KATSO database is fully established, the national data of TET will be used to establish a guideline and standard of the treatment for TET in South Korea and KATSO will collaborate with ITMIG.