Résumé
Objective: the aim of this study was to identify preoperative predictive factors of recurrence for thymic epithelial tumours by investigating clinical, biological, scanographic, anatomopathological and therapeutic data.Method: a single-institution retrospective study was performed, including 162 patients who had undergone a thymic resection for a thymic epithelial tumour between 2000 and 2020. The secondary objectives were to identify preoperative factors of incomplete resection and to identify per and postoperative factors of recurrence. The primary endpoint was disease free survival, and the secondary endpoints were overall survival and incomplete resection.Results: a total of 122 patients R0 were included in the principal analysis, among whom 14 had a recurrence. In the R0 population, disease free survival rates at 5, 10 and 15 years were 0,90 (95% CI 0.82-0.93), 0.87 (95% CI 0.77-0.91), and 0.83 (95% CI 0.70-0.90). The principal multivariate analysis showed that tumour size on preoperative CT (HR 1.02; CI 1.00-1.03) and neoadjuvant treatment by radiochemotherapy (HR 33.02; CI 2.84-383.30) were associated with an increased risk of recurrence. When studying risk factors for incomplete resection, the multivariate analysis showed that the invasion of the thoracic wall (OR 18.39; CI 1.48-229.11) and the presence of necrosis (OR 6.37; CI 1.57-25.79) on the preoperative CT scan were identified as independent risk factors.Conclusion: the results of our retrospective cohort study indicated that an important tumoral size measured on preoperative CT was an independent predictor of recurrence, whereas age, sex, medical history, and smoking status did not seem to impact the recurrence risk.