Thymic carcinoma natural history, complications and prognosis

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Alejandro Lemor, M.D. [2]

Natural History

Thymic carcinomas are generally considered indolent tumors due to long recurrence intervals (median of 68 months). Overall, for patients diagnosed with a resectable thymic tumor, 16% of them will recur after radical resection, either locally with pleural or ganglionar recurrence or with distant metastases. The most common sites of distant recurrence are lung, liver, bone, kidney, brain and bone marrow.

Complications

There are no reported cases of complications regarding the carcinoma by itself. Most complications occur during surgery and biopsy.

Prognosis

The most important factor for prognosis is the stage and grade of the thymic carcinoma. The 5-year and 10-year overall survival rates in patients with thymic carcinoma are 38% and 28%, respectively.

The subtypes squamous cell carcinoma, mucoepidermoid and basaloid carcinoma have a better prognosis than other histological subtypes. For neuroendocrine carcinomas, the malignancy is intermediate between thymoma and thymic carcinoma, being the small cell and large cell carcinomas the most malignant.