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Review
. 2020 Dec 30:4:35.
doi: 10.21037/med-20-4. eCollection 2020.

Radiation dose for thymic tumours

Nafisha Lalani  1 , Anthony M Brade  2
Affiliations
Review

Radiation dose for thymic tumours

Nafisha Lalani et al. Mediastinum. .

Abstract

Thymomas and thymic carcinomas are rare epithelial cell tumours arising from the thymus. Definitive surgical resection continues to be the primary approach for the management of thymomas and thymic carcinomas. However, complete resection is not always achievable due to the complexity of the mediastinal anatomy and in rare cases local recurrences may occur which are often incurable. Therefore, the use of Post-Operative Radiotherapy (PORT) may be considered with the intent of improving local control while being judicious of toxicity in the setting of prolonged clinical trajectories and proximity to critical structures. There continues to be a paucity of literature surrounding the use of PORT for thymomas and thymic carcinomas and the optimal dose has not yet been established. This review aims to summarize the current literature regarding radiotherapy indications and to explore issues surrounding radiotherapy dose-response-relationships for thymomas and thymic carcinoma. Long-term prospective studies using contemporary surgical and radiotherapy techniques are needed to further elucidate the optimal radiation approach in the management of thymic tumours.

Keywords: Thymoma; radiotherapy; thymic carcinoma.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: Both authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/med-20-4). The series “Dedicated to the 10th International Thymic Malignancy Interest Group Annual Meeting (ITMIG 2019)” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Radiotherapy dose response in a retrospective single institution cohort of 104 patients [14].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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