Table 3.

Treatment and outcomes of patients with thymic carcinoid (TC) tumors

Case	Extent of disease at diagnosis	Therapy	Recurrence	Follow-up (years)	Death
1	Local extension with tumor in entire anterior mediastinum and pleural cavities	SR + RT	Residual tumor with local progression	3	Yes, due to TC
2	No local extension or distal metastasis	SR at diagnosis; at time of recurrence 5-FU + RT + somatostatin analog	At 6 years postoperatively, anterior mediastinal mass with pericardial effusion; at 8 years, metastatic disease to sacrum and ribs	10	Yes, unknown cause
3	No local extension or distant metastasisa	SR; brain resection of metastatic lesion + WBRT 4200	At 4 years postoperatively with bone and brain metastases	4	Yes, due to TC
4	No local extension or distant metastasis	SR	Local recurrence at 11 years postoperatively	11	No
5	Local extension with positive surgical margins, vascular and lymph node invasion	SR	At 6 years postoperatively brain metastases and at 7 years lung metastases	8	Yes, due to TC
6	No local extension or distant metastasis	SR	No	5	No
7	Local extension with positive surgical margins	Cisplatin + etoposide followed by SR and RT; at time of recurrence started on tyrosine kinase inhibitor	At 3.5 years postoperatively, mediastinal and lung nodules	3	No

SR surgical resection, RT radiation therapy, 5FU 5 fluorouracil, WBRT whole brain radiation therapy

^aScreening chest roentgenogram showed a mediastinal mass that was resected and reported as a benign thymic tumor. Four years later, the patient presented with neurologic symptoms and metastatic disease to the brain was diagnosed