title: Thymic tumors.
abstract: Thymic tumors include thymic carcinoma, which exhibit aggressive behavior, and thymomas, which manifest a more indolent course. Complete resection is the mainstay of treatment, and there appears to be little benefit to partial resection. Postoperative radiotherapy may be useful in incompletely resected patients. Preoperative chemotherapy appears to increase the rate of complete resection and survival of patients with a stage III or IVa thymoma and should strongly be considered in such cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7065, USA. fdetter@med.unc.edu
authors.forename: Frank C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Detterbeck
authors.forename: Alden M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Parsons
mesh_terms: D002276:Carcinoid Tumor / Q000175:diagnosis; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000601:surgery; D011379:Prognosis; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D013945:Thymoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy