Radiotherapy for Thymic Neoplasms

MALIGNANCIES OF THE THYMUS Radiotherapy for Thymic Neoplasms

The role of radiotherapy in the treatment of thymoma and thymic carcinoma has been evaluated by many investigators over the past two decades. The low incidence of these neoplasms has limited most published studies to small series spanning long time intervals or population-based studies. The exact indications and protocols for the use of radiotherapy as a part of the multidisciplinary approach t...

Current chemotherapy options for thymic epithelial neoplasms.

Thymomas and thymic carcinoma are rare neoplasms. Surgical resection is the cornerstone of effective therapy. Stage I disease is effectively treated by complete surgical resection. The role of radiation therapy in completely resected stage II disease remains controversial. Adjuvant radiation therapy is useful for local control and may improve survival in patients with incompletely resected tumo...

Radiotherapy in thoracic neoplasms.

The role of radiotherapy for thymic carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to evaluate retrospectively the role of radiotherapy for thymic carcinoma. METHODS Between 1973 and 1998, 14 patients with thymic carcinoma were treated at Gunma Prefectural Cancer Center. Two patients who had hematogenous metastasis were excluded from this study, therefore 12 patients were analyzed. The Masaoka staging system was used; four patients were di...

Well-Differentiated Thymic Epithelial Neoplasms (Thymoma)

(atypical thymoma); and those showing total loss of the organotypical features of the thymus and displaying overt cytologic evidence of malignancy correspond to high-grade or poorly differentiated thymic epithelial neoplasms (also designated, by convention, thymic carcinoma) (2,4). The grading is based on a combination of architectural and cytological parameters as observed on routine microscop...