Chemotherapy of thymomas and thymic carcinomas.
Thymomas are chemosensitive tumors with overall response rates of about 70% to various chemotherapy regimens. A fraction of patients (up to 25%-30%) will obtain a CR after chemotherapy. These results justify the use of chemotherapy in a multimodality fashion for the treatment of patients with advanced tumors. With radiotherapy added to chemotherapy, if necessary and if technically feasible, inoperable tumors may become resectable, leading to excellent long-term survival. On the other hand, thymic carcinomas are more refractory to chemotherapy, and their prognoses remain poor.
Chahinian
A P
AP
Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York University, New York, New York, USA.
D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D013945:Thymoma / Q000188:drug therapy*; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*