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Review
. 2023 May 12;13(5):1170.
doi: 10.3390/life13051170.

Current Treatment Approaches for Thymic Epithelial Tumors

Alfredo Tartarone  1 , Rosa Lerose  2 , Alessandro Rocco Lettini  3 , Marina Tartarone  4
Affiliations
Review

Current Treatment Approaches for Thymic Epithelial Tumors

Alfredo Tartarone et al. Life (Basel). .

Abstract

Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs), including thymoma, thymic carcinoma and neuroendocrine tumors, are uncommon tumors that originate from the epithelial cells of the thymus. Nevertheless, despite their rarity, they represent the most common tumor type located in the anterior mediastinum. Therapeutic choices based on staging and histology may include surgery with or without neoadjuvant or adjuvant therapy represented by chemotherapy, radiotherapy or chemo-radiotherapy. For patients with advanced or metastatic TETs, platinum-based chemotherapy remains the standard first-line treatment; however, some new drugs and combinations are currently under evaluation. In any case, proper management of patients with TETs requires a multidisciplinary team approach to personalize care for each patient.

Keywords: thymic carcinoma; thymic epithelial tumors; thymoma.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Histological classification for thymic carcinoma according to the World Health Organization (WHO) [13].
Figure 2
Figure 2
TNM 8th edition staging system for TETs [14].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Modified Masaoka clinical staging system for thymoma [15].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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