Multimodality Treatment of Thymic Tumors

Tumors of the thymus are rather infrequent compared with all the other thoracic neoplasms. They may display a variable clinical presentation and outcome. Although they may present as a capsulated lesion with an indolent course, in other cases they may be locally aggressive, invading the surrounding structures, or show the presence of distant metastases. At these advanced stages, cure and complete resection may be difficult, and only a multimodality approach integrating surgery with induction chemotherapy and adjuvant treatment can contribute to improve outcome. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.