Abstract
Malignant thymomas are rare indolent tumours of the anterior superior mediastinum. Despite a benign histologic appearance, some thymomas invade nearby structures or metastasize. Patients are commonly asymptomatic, but same may present with unusual paraneoplastic syndromes such as myasthenia gravis, pure red cell aplasia, or hypogammaglobulinemia. Since tumour biopsy may potentially disrupt the thymic capsule, it is often not performed. Patients are therefore diagnosed and staged at the time of definitive surgery. Thymomas can generally be categorized into two stages: non-invasive and invasive. Prognosis closely parallels the disease stage. Surgery is the principal treatment and is curative in early stage disease. Radiation therapy, either alone or in combination with chemotherapy, is an option for both incompletely or completely resected disease. Chemotherapy is offered to patients with locally advanced, recurrent, or metastatic thymoma, with excellent responses and prolonged survival. Multicentre co-operative group clinical trials are required to assess novel thymoma therapies to maximize patient resources in this uncommon tumour: (C) 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 127-131 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Cancer Treatment Reviews |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2000 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Urology
Cite this
Malignant thymoma : Current status and future directions. / Lara, Primo N.
In: Cancer Treatment Reviews, Vol. 26, No. 2, 04.2000, p. 127-131.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Malignant thymoma
T2 - Current status and future directions
AU - Lara, Primo N
PY - 2000/4
Y1 - 2000/4
N2 - Malignant thymomas are rare indolent tumours of the anterior superior mediastinum. Despite a benign histologic appearance, some thymomas invade nearby structures or metastasize. Patients are commonly asymptomatic, but same may present with unusual paraneoplastic syndromes such as myasthenia gravis, pure red cell aplasia, or hypogammaglobulinemia. Since tumour biopsy may potentially disrupt the thymic capsule, it is often not performed. Patients are therefore diagnosed and staged at the time of definitive surgery. Thymomas can generally be categorized into two stages: non-invasive and invasive. Prognosis closely parallels the disease stage. Surgery is the principal treatment and is curative in early stage disease. Radiation therapy, either alone or in combination with chemotherapy, is an option for both incompletely or completely resected disease. Chemotherapy is offered to patients with locally advanced, recurrent, or metastatic thymoma, with excellent responses and prolonged survival. Multicentre co-operative group clinical trials are required to assess novel thymoma therapies to maximize patient resources in this uncommon tumour: (C) 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.
AB - Malignant thymomas are rare indolent tumours of the anterior superior mediastinum. Despite a benign histologic appearance, some thymomas invade nearby structures or metastasize. Patients are commonly asymptomatic, but same may present with unusual paraneoplastic syndromes such as myasthenia gravis, pure red cell aplasia, or hypogammaglobulinemia. Since tumour biopsy may potentially disrupt the thymic capsule, it is often not performed. Patients are therefore diagnosed and staged at the time of definitive surgery. Thymomas can generally be categorized into two stages: non-invasive and invasive. Prognosis closely parallels the disease stage. Surgery is the principal treatment and is curative in early stage disease. Radiation therapy, either alone or in combination with chemotherapy, is an option for both incompletely or completely resected disease. Chemotherapy is offered to patients with locally advanced, recurrent, or metastatic thymoma, with excellent responses and prolonged survival. Multicentre co-operative group clinical trials are required to assess novel thymoma therapies to maximize patient resources in this uncommon tumour: (C) 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.
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U2 - 10.1053/ctrv.1999.0159
DO - 10.1053/ctrv.1999.0159
M3 - Article
VL - 26
SP - 127
EP - 131
JO - Cancer Treatment Reviews
JF - Cancer Treatment Reviews
SN - 0305-7372
IS - 2
ER -