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Thymoma needs a new staging system

^a Division of Thoracic Surgery, National Cancer Center Hospital, 1-1, Tsukiji 5-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan
^b Division of Pathology, National Cancer Center Hospital, 1-1, Tsukiji 5-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan

^* Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-3-3542-2511; fax: +81-3-3542-3815
hasamura{at}ncc.go.jp

Despite the wide use of the Masaoka staging system for thymoma, the distribution of survival by stage group is not well balanced. The new staging systems for testing were defined as follows: stage I was created by merging Masaoka's stages I and II, and stage IV remained unchanged. Stages II and III were defined as thymomas with invasive growth and the following combinations of tumor diameter and number of involved structures/organs. Scheme 1: stage II included tumors less than 10 cm in diameter and involving one neighboring structure/organ. Stage III included tumors with all combinations of diameter and number of involved structures/organs other than those in stage II. Scheme 2: stage II included tumors of all combinations other than those in stage III. Stage III included tumors 10 cm or more in diameter and involving two or more structures/organs. The survival curves were assessed for 138 patients treated at the National Cancer Center, Tokyo. The 10-year survival rates for each stage according to the Masaoka, Scheme 1, and Scheme 2 systems were as follows: stage I (100%, 100%, 100%), stage II (100%, 86%, 83%), stage III (70%, 64%, 34%), and stage IV (34%, 34%, 34%), respectively. The survival curves for Scheme 1 gave the most balanced distribution of survival in each staging group. By considering both tumor diameter and number of involved structures/organs, Masaoka's stages I–III could be rearranged with more balanced distribution of survival.

Key Words: Thymoma; Thymectomy; Mediastinal tumor; Surgery; Pathology

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