[The diagnosis and treatment of the thymic carcinoma].

Thymic carcinoma was indistinct for criteria of clinicopathological diagnosis. Recently it gets easier to diagnose thymic carcinoma, because of progression of WHO classification and immunohistochemical technique. Commonly, patients are men and in sixties. Common symptoms are chest pain and dyspnea. Most cases are advanced, over Stage III of the Masaoka's classification. Combined therapies e.g. operation, chemotherapy and radiation were done, but complete resection is difficult. Prognosis is poor, the 3- and 5-year survival is 48.7% and 40.6%.