Tumeurs épithéliales thymiques: Aspects diagnostiques et thérapeutiques

Thymic malignancies are tumors which necessitate a multimodal approach. Twenty percent of these tumors are associated with auto-immune disorders. Surgery remains the treatment of choice for localized lesions. Complete resection represents the main prognostic factor. Postoperative radiation could be considered for patients with residual disease. Chemotherapy is standard in locally advanced and metastatic disease. In current practice the most common regimen for adult patients is anthracycline-based chemotherapy. The combination of carboplatin and paclitaxel seems to be efficient in recent studies and could be used as first-line. Several targeted therapies, such as KIT inhibitors, anti-VEGF, CDK inhibitors, or more recently mTOR inhibitors, have been developed with promising results. In the age of personalized medicine, including patients in phase I studies may help to identify rare mutations and treat them specifically. In France, monthly national web conferences are performed by RYTHMIC (Réseau Tumeurs Thymiques et Cancer) group to optimize the management of these tumors.