Pretreatment Biopsy for Histological Diagnosis and Induction Therapy in Thymic Tumors

Background and objective The aim of this study is to investigate the value of pretreatment biopsy for histological diagnosis and induction therapies in the management of locally advanced thymic malignancies. Methods The clinical pathological data of patients with thymic tumors in the Chinese Alliance for Research in Thymomas (ChART) who underwent biopsy before treatment from 1994 to December 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. The application trend of preoperative histological diagnosis and its influence on treatment outcome were analyzed. Results Of 1,902 cases of thymic tumors, 336 (17.1%) had undergone biopsy for histological diagnosis before therapeutic decision was decided. In recent years, percentage of pretreatment histological diagnosis significantly increased in the later ten years than the former during the study period (P=0.008). There was also a significant increase in thoracoscopy/mediastinoscopy/endobronchial ultrasound (E-BUS) biopsy as compared to open biopsy (P=0.029). Survival in Patients with preoperative biopsy for histology had significantly higher stage lesions (P