Surgical treatment of thymic tumors

Abstract

Thymoma is a rare neoplasm usually with an indolent growth pattern; however, local invasion and/or metastases may occur. The association with several paraneoplastic syndromes, especially myasthenia gravis, makes thymoma an interesting biologic tumor model. Surgery has been the standard of care for early stage disease with high cure rates anticipated. Multimodality therapy can result in long-term disease-free survival for patients presenting with locally advanced disease.