Platinum-based chemotherapy with or without thoracic radiation therapy in patients with unresectable thymic carcinoma

Background: Thymic carcinoma is a rare mediastinal neoplasm with poor progn osis. Although the clinical benefit of chemotherapy for thymic carcinoma is controversial, cisplatin-based chemotherapy with or without radiation ther apy is ordinarily adopted in advanced cases. We evaluated the clinical outc ome of platinum-based chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy in unr esectable thymic carcinoma patients. Methods: Ten patients with unresectable thymic carcinoma were treated with platinum-based chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy in the Nation al Cancer Center Hospital between 1989 and 1998. We reviewed the histologic al type, treatment, response and survival of these patients. Results: Four of the 10 patients responded to chemotherapy and both the med ian progression-free survival period and the median response duration were 6.0 months. The median survival time was 11.0 months. There was no relation ship between histological classification and prognosis. Conclusions: Platinum-based chemotherapy with or without thoracic radiation is, regardless of tumor histology, marginally effective in advanced thymic carcinoma patients, giving only a modest tumor response rate and short res ponse duration and survival.