CAJ | 학술논문

Objective: Evaluation the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in invasive thymoma. Methods: 14 patients with invasive thymoma(Masaoka stage Ⅲ in 12 and Ⅳa in 2) were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy by CAVP for 3-4 cycles (cyclophosphamide 600mg/m2 D1, adramycin 30mg/m2 or epi-adramycin 40mg/m2 D1, vincristine 0.6mg/m2 D1 or vindestine 3mg/m2 D1、D8, cisplatin 30mg/m2 D1、2、3)。After chemotherapy, all patients underwent operation in 1-3 months. We performed 10 sternotomies and 4 anterolateral thoracotomies. Radiotherapy was administrated with total dose 50-60Gy in all patients except for those who were pathologically complete remission. The group was followed up by 6 months to 3 years. Results :After chemotherapy, 5 patients(35.7%) had a complete remission(CR) and 9 patients(64.3%) had a partial remission(PR)。At operation, 9 patients had radical resection and 5 had partial resection. Postoperative pathological examination found only fibrosis in 5 patients with CR by chemotherapy. All patients were still alive except 2 patients died from visceral metastasis after 18 months and 2 years respectively. Conclusion: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy can increase the resectability of stage Ⅲ and Ⅳa invasive thymoma. A longer follow-up and a larger number of patients are needed to determine the impact of this treatment on long-term survival.