• Chang-Feng Lu, Lei Yu, Yun Jing, Yun-Feng Zhang, and Ji Ke.
• Department of Neurology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100730, China.
• Chin. Med. J. 2018 Apr 20; 131 (8): 927-932.

BackgroundThe co-existence of myasthenia gravis (MG) and thymoma makes the surgical treatment more complicated and adjuvant radiation more controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate adjuvant radiotherapy for thymoma with MG after extended thymectomy.MethodsA total of 181 patients with both MG and thymoma were recruited between 2003 and 2014 at Tongren Hospital, China. Among all the patients, 157 patients received radiation therapy after surgery (Group A); whereas the other 24 patients did not receive radiation therapy (Group B). According to the time that patients started mediastinal radiation therapy, we subdivided the 157 patients in Group A into subgroups (1-month subgroup, n = 98; 2-month subgroup, n = 7; and 3-month subgroup, n = 52). We then compared the effect of the mediastinal radiation therapy across these different groups using the survival rate, the rate of postoperative myasthenic crisis, and the complete stable remission (CSR) rate as the primary endpoints.ResultsThere was a significant difference in the occurrence of postoperative myasthenic crisis between 1-month subgroup and Group B (χ2 = 4.631, P = 0.031). The rates of reaching CSR were 32.6% in 1-month subgroup, 25% in 3-month subgroup, and 22.7% in Group B, respectively. The overall survival rates of 1-month subgroup, 3-month subgroup, and Group B were 88.8%, 83.3%, and 77.3%, respectively. Analysis on the Kaplan-Meier survival curves demonstrated that within 8 years after surgery, there was no significant difference in aspects of overall survival and disease-free survival between 1-month subgroup and Group B, and between 3-month subgroup and Group B; over 8 years after surgery, the disease-free survival rates in 1-month subgroup, 3-month subgroup and Group B were 79.4%, 70.6%, and 55.3%, respectively.ConclusionsAdjuvant radiation within 1 month after extended thymectomy may be helpful in controlling postoperative MG, such as decreasing the possibility of postoperative myasthenic crisis, and raising cumulative probabilities of reaching CSR.

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