[Clinical types of thoracic cancer. Mediastinal tumours]

Mediastinal germ cell tumours (teratomas, seminomas, and non-seminomatous malignant germ cell tumours) are a heterogeneous group of benign and malignant neoplasms. The standard treatment of mediastinal non-seminomatous malignant germ cell tumours is four cycles of chemotherapy followed by surgical resection of the residual mass. Small localized mediastinal seminomas may be treated with primary resection followed by radiotherapy. In patients with locally advanced disease, the preferred treatment is systemic chemotherapy followed by surgical resection of any residual disease. Thymomas can be locally invasive and associated with parathymic syndromes. Complete surgical excision is attempted in most cases of thymoma. Radiation therapy is usually recommended for invasive or incompletely excised tumours. Invasive thymoma is chemosensitive.