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. 2023 Apr;14(12):1102-1117.
doi: 10.1111/1759-7714.14847. Epub 2023 Mar 16.

Chinese expert consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of thymic epithelial tumors

Chunwei Xu  1   2   3 , Yongchang Zhang  4 , Wenxian Wang  2 , Qian Wang  5 , Ziming Li  6 , Zhengbo Song  2 , Jiandong Wang  7 , Jinpu Yu  8 , Jingjing Liu  9 , Shirong Zhang  10 , Xiuyu Cai  11 , Ming Wu  12 , Ping Zhan  3 , Hongbing Liu  3 , Tangfeng Lv  3 , Liyun Miao  13 , Lingfeng Min  14 , Jiancheng Li  15 , Baogang Liu  16 , Jingping Yuan  17 , Zhansheng Jiang  18 , Gen Lin  19 , Xiaohui Chen  20 , Xingxiang Pu  21 , Chuangzhou Rao  22 , Dongqing Lv  23 , Zongyang Yu  24 , Xiaoyan Li  25 , Chuanhao Tang  26 , Chengzhi Zhou  27 , Junping Zhang  28 , Hui Guo  29 , Qian Chu  30 , Rui Meng  31 , Xuewen Liu  32 , Jingxun Wu  33 , Xiao Hu  34 , Min Fang  34 , Jin Zhou  35 , Zhengfei Zhu  36 , Xiaofeng Chen  37 , Weiwei Pan  38 , Fei Pang  39 , Yuxiang Zhou  39 , Qijie Jian  39 , Kai Wang  39 , Liping Wang  40 , Youcai Zhu  41 , Guocai Yang  42 , Xinqing Lin  27 , Jing Cai  43 , Lijun Liang  12 , Huijing Feng  28 , Lin Wang  44 , Yingying Du  45 , Wang Yao  46 , Xuefei Shi  47 , Xiaomin Niu  6 , Dongmei Yuan  3 , Yanwen Yao  3 , Jianhui Huang  48 , Yinbin Zhang  49 , Pingli Sun  50 , Hong Wang  51 , Mingxiang Ye  3 , Dong Wang  3 , Zhaofeng Wang  3 , Yue Hao  2 , Zhen Wang  52 , Bing Wan  53 , Donglai Lv  54 , Genhua Yu  55 , Anna Li  56 , Jin Kang  56 , Jiatao Zhang  56 , Chao Zhang  56 , Huafei Chen  41 , Lin Shi  57 , Leiguang Ye  16 , Gaoming Wang  58 , Yina Wang  59 , Feng Gao  60 , Wei Zhou  1 , Chunxiu Hu  61 , Jianguo Wei  62 , Bihui Li  63 , Zhongwu Li  64 , Yuan Li  65 , Zhefeng Liu  51 , Nong Yang  3 , Lin Wu  21 , Qiming Wang  66 , Wenbin Huang  67 , Zhuan Hong  68 , Guansong Wang  69 , Meiyu Fang  4 , Yong Fang  70 , Xixu Zhu  52 , Kaiqi Du  41 , Jiansong Ji  71 , Yi Shen  72 , Yiping Zhang  4 , Shenglin Ma  73 , Yong Song  3 , Yuanzhi Lu  74 , Anwen Liu  43 , Wenfeng Fang  75 , Wenzhao Zhong  56
Affiliations

Chinese expert consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of thymic epithelial tumors

Chunwei Xu et al. Thorac Cancer. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are a relatively rare type of thoracic tumor, accounting for less than 1% of all tumors. The incidence of TETs is about 3.93/10000 in China, slightly higher than that of European and American countries. For resectable TETs, complete surgical resection is recommended. Radiotherapy or chemotherapy may be used as postoperative adjuvant treatment. Treatment for advanced, unresectable TETs consist mainly of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but there is a lack of standard first- and second-line treatment regimens. Recently, targeted therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown promising outcomes in TETs. Based on the currently available clinical evidences and the opinions of the national experts, the Thymic Oncology Group of Yangtze River Delta Lung Cancer Cooperation Group (East China LUng caNcer Group, ECLUNG; Youth Committee) established this Chinese expert consensus on the clinical diagnosis and treatment of TETs, covering the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and follow-up of TETs.

Keywords: diagnosis; thymic carcinoma; thymic epithelial tumor; thymoma; treatment.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Supplementary concepts