Original Research
AB039. Survival of Danish patients with thymic epithelial tumors: a nationwide cohort study
Tine Østergaard1, Caroline V. A. Bjerke2, Eric Santoni-Rugiu2, Thomas H. L. Jensen2, Katharina A. Perell1, René H. Petersen3, Peter M. Petersen1
1Department of Oncology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark;
2Department of Pathology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark;
3Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
Correspondence to: Tine Østergaard, MD-student. Department of Oncology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, Copenhagen, Region H, 2100, Denmark. Email: tine@steos.com.
Background: Knowledge of prognostic factors for survival of patients with thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) is not yet implemented in clinical practice. The aim of this study is to report the overall survival (OS) of TET patients and prognostic value of baseline characteristics to enable the incorporation of prognostic factors in treatment and surveillance design.
Methods: The study cohort was comprised by 282 Danish TET patients diagnosed between January 1st, 2015, and December 31st, 2020. Data from baseline and patient follow-ups were collected from online medical records and included disease characteristics, vital status, and cause of death. Prognostic factors for OS were identified using the Cox-proportional hazards model.
Results: Thymoma, thymic carcinoma (TC), and thymic neuroendocrine tumor (NET) comprised respectively 85%, 14%, and 1.4% of the TETs diagnosed in the cohort. During the period of follow-up (mean 72 months; range 44 to 115 months) 65 patients deceased resulting in an OS of 77% with a 5-year OS of 75.6%. TET-specific deaths were the most common cause of death accounting for 42% of the deaths in the cohort. In the multivariate analysis, both increasing age and advanced tumor/lymph node/metastasis (TNM) stage (III or IV) were negative independent prognostic factors of OS.
Conclusions: We report an improved OS of Danish TET patients compared to the OS reported in previous population-based studies, thus supporting increasing trend in the incidence of early stage TETs and improved survival of TET patients suggested in re-cent literature. Still, TET specific death was the most common cause of death in the cohort, thereby highlighting the potential fatality of TETs and supporting the need for surveillance of TET patients.
Keywords: Survival; prognostic factors; population-based; mortality; thymic epithelial tumors (TETs)
Acknowledgments
None.
Funding: None.
Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://med.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/med-25-ab039/coif). R.H.P. received grants from Medtronic, Xvivo, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, speaker fees from Medtronic, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Intuitive, travel support from AstraZeneca, and advisory board payments from AstraZeneca, MSD, Roche, and BMS. Eric Santoni-Rugiu received grants from Sanofi and Takeda, honoraria from Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, and Takeda and advisory board payments from Roche and Takeda. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and its subsequent amendments. The study is conducted in compliance with the guidelines of the Danish National Medical Research Ethics Committee, and required no approval from the ethics committee as no additional tests or investigations are done in the patients whose data are included in this study.
Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
doi: 10.21037/med-25-ab039
Cite this abstract as: Østergaard T, Bjerke CVA, Santoni-Rugiu E, Jensen THL, Perell KA, Petersen RH, Petersen PM. AB039. Survival of Danish patients with thymic epithelial tumors: a nationwide cohort study. Mediastinum 2025;9:AB039.
