Objective: The optimal strategy for pleural dissemination of advanced thymoma remains controversial, while a potential benefit from macroscopic clearance of disseminations has been reported. In this study, we review our mid-term results of surgical resection of pleural disseminations of invasive thymoma.

Methods: Data from patients with pleural dissemination synchronously or metachronously to primary invasive thymoma who underwent surgical resection from 1991 to 2012 at our institute were retrospectively reviewed.

Results: Of 136 thymoma patients who underwent surgery during the study period, 13 consecutive patients with pleural dissemination (synchronous: 7, metachronous: 6) with a median age of 49 years (range: 27-78 years) at the time of dissemination resection were identified. No patients presented with haematogenous metastases. Operative procedures included the thorough resection of visible disseminated nodules in 11 patients and extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) in 2 patients. The median number of resected nodules was 6 (range: 1-52). The median follow-up was 948 days (range: 38-4025 days). One patient died of postoperative bleeding, but there were no tumour-related deaths during the study period. Pleural recurrence was found in 9 cases, including 2 EPP cases, and among them, 3 underwent repeated resection. The overall survival and the recurrence-free survival ratio at 5 years was 92.3 and 33.3%, respectively. Five patients, including 2 repeated resection cases, remained tumour-free at the final observation.

Conclusions: Resection of pleural dissemination of invasive thymoma can be performed in selected patients and may offer optimal local control as part of a multimodal strategy.