[Thymic tumors]

Thymic tumors. Thymic epithelial tumors are rare malignancies, that may be aggressive and difficult to treat, with variable prognosis. The histopathological classification distinguishes two major tumor types: thymomas and thymic carcinomas. Autoimmune manifestations are observed in nearly one third of patients at diagnosis; myasthenia gravis is the most common, followed by pure red cell aplasia and hypogammaglobulinemia. Assessing the resectability of the tumor represents the first stage of the therapeutic strategy, as complete resection is the most significant prognostic factor on patient survival. For unresectable thymic tumors, treatment is then based on induction chemotherapy followed by surgical resection or radiotherapy. Following a call of the French National Cancer Institute, a network of expert centers for the management of thymic malignancies started in in 2012: RYTHMIC.