Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27114832›Full record

ArticleJournal of thoracic disease2016

Pretreatment biopsy for histological diagnosis and induction therapy in thymic tumors.

Jie Yue, Zhitao Gu, Zhentao Yu, Hongdian Zhang, Zhao Ma, Yuan Liu, Wentao Fang, Members of the Chinese Alliance for Research in Thymomas

Open access · hybridAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of thoracic disease, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
1.3field-weighted citation impact, top 20% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Mediastinal tumors: why, when, and how to biopsy?Mediastinum (Hong Kong, China) · 2025
    Review
  2. Revealing the mysteries of thymoma.Journal of thoracic disease · 2020
    Article
  3. Review
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Jie Yue1 Department of Esophageal Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy of Tianjin City, Tianjin 300060, China ; 2 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
Zhitao Gu1 Department of Esophageal Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy of Tianjin City, Tianjin 300060, China ; 2 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
Zhentao Yu1 Department of Esophageal Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy of Tianjin City, Tianjin 300060, China ; 2 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
Hongdian Zhang1 Department of Esophageal Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy of Tianjin City, Tianjin 300060, China ; 2 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
Zhao Ma1 Department of Esophageal Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy of Tianjin City, Tianjin 300060, China ; 2 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
Yuan Liu1 Department of Esophageal Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy of Tianjin City, Tianjin 300060, China ; 2 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
Wentao Fang1 Department of Esophageal Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy of Tianjin City, Tianjin 300060, China ; 2 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
Members of the Chinese Alliance for Research in Thymomas
Shanghai Chest Hospital · CNTianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital · CN

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThis study was to investigate the value of pretreatment biopsy for histological diagnosis and induction therapies in the management of locally advanced thymic malignancies.

methodsThe 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.

resultsOf 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/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=0.000) and higher grade malignancy (P=0.000), thus a significantly lower complete resection rate (P=0.000) and therefore a significantly worse survival than those without preoperative biopsy (P=0.000). In the biopsied 336 patients, those who received upfront surgery had significantly better survival than those received surgery after induction therapy (P=0.000). In stage III and IVa diseases, the R0 resection rate after induction therapies increased significantly as compared to the surgery upfront cases (65.5% vs. 46.2%, P=0.025). Tumors downstaged after induction had similar outcomes as those having upfront surgery (92.3% vs. 84.2%, P=0.51). However, tumors not downstaged by induction had significantly worse prognosis than those downstaged (P=0.004), and fared even worse than those having definitive chemoradiation without surgery (37.2% vs. 62.4%, P=0.216).

conclusionsIt is crucial to get histological diagnosis for thymoma before surgery or adjuvant treatment and minimally invasive biopsy should be undertaken. Although in our study we could not find the benefit of induction chemotherapy before surgery in survival and recurrence rate, it could increase the R0 resection rate compared with direct surgery in late stage (III and IVa).

Indexed as

biopsyhistologyprognosissurgeryThymoma

Identifiers

PMID27114832
PMCPMC4824731
OpenAlexW2299152409

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.