Chemotherapy and targeted agents for thymic malignancies

Abstract

Thymic malignancies are rare epithelial tumors that may be aggressive and difficult to treat. Thymomas are usually localized to the anterior mediastinum and are frequently eligible for upfront surgical resection. However, nearly 30% of patients present with locally advanced tumors at time of diagnosis, and chemotherapy is then used to reduce the tumor burden, possibly allowing subsequent surgery and/or radiotherapy. Metastatic and recurrent thymic malignancies may similarly be treated with chemotherapy. More recently, the molecular characterization of thymoma and thymic carcinoma led to the identification of potentially druggable targets, laying the foundations to implement personalized medicine for patients.

Keywords::

• chemotherapy
• EGFR
• KIT/SCFR
• mast/stem-cell growth factor receptor
• octreotide
• radiotherapy
• surgery
• targeted therapy
• thymic carcinoma
• thymoma
• VEGFR

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The author has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.