Abstract

Between October 1985 and January 1990, the combination chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, adriamycin and cisplatin (CAP) has been administered in 16 patients with invasive, recurrent or metastatic thymoma. Among 14 evaluable patients, 1 patient(7%) achieved a complete response and 4 patients (29%) had a partial response. The 4 year overall survival rates were 56.7% with a median follow-up of 11.5 months. The mast frequent hematologic toxicity was leukopenia (15.9%) and nonhematologic toxicity (WHO criteria; grade II) were alopecia (80%) and nausea/vomiting (66.7%). The CAP regimen is effective and well tolerated for the treatment of invasive thymoma, and further study is needed to confirm the relative effectiveness of CAP regimen in comparison with other regimens and to find out the prognostic factors related to response rate and survival