Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Oct 10, 2015; 6(5): 96-98
Published online Oct 10, 2015. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v6.i5.96
New findings on thymic epithelial tumors: Something is changing
Rossana Berardi, Francesca Morgese, Marina Chiara Garassino, Stefano Cascinu
Rossana Berardi, Francesca Morgese, Stefano Cascinu, Department of Medical Oncology, Università Politecnica Marche, 60126 Ancona, Italy
Marina Chiara Garassino, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, I-20122 Milan, Italy
Author contributions: Berardi R was responsible for manuscript conception, revising literature and writing the paper and had the final responsibility to submit for publication; Morgese F, Garassino MC and Cascinu S contributed in performing research, analyzing literature data, writing the paper; all authors had read and approved the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no competing interests. All authors contributed to the study, read and approved the final manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Rossana Berardi, MD, Department of Medical Oncology, Università Politecnica Marche, Via Conca 71, 60126 Ancona, Italy. r.berardi@univpm.it
Telephone: +39-71-5965715 Fax: +39-71-5965053
Received: January 29, 2015
Peer-review started: February 2, 2015
First decision: April 27, 2015
Revised: June 8, 2015
Accepted: September 7, 2015
Article in press: September 8, 2015
Published online: October 10, 2015
Processing time: 257 Days and 3 Hours
Abstract

Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are uncommon neoplasms with a wide range of anatomical, clinical, histological and molecular malignant entities. To date the management of TETs within clinical practice is based on a multimodal therapeutic strategy including surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy with a multidisciplinary approach and prognostic evaluation is mainly based on Masaoka staging and World Health Organization classification. Therefore novel strategies are needed, especially for refractory and/or recurrent TETs and for thymic carcinomas that present a poor prognosis. Personalized approaches are currely being developed and molecular targets are emerging from recent integrated genomic analyses. Targeted therapy will represent an important treatment option for TETs with an aggressive histology. To date, data indicate that vascular endothelial growth factor molecules, insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor, cyclin-dependent kinases and mammalian target of rapamycin may be potentially useful as targeted biological therapies.

Keywords: Thymic epithelial tumors; Thymoma; Thymic carcinoma; Targeted therapy; Programmed cell death-1

Core tip: Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are uncommon neoplasms with a wide range of anatomical, clinical, histological and molecular malignant entities. To date the management of TETs within clinical practice is based on a multimodal therapeutic strategy including surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy with a multidisciplinary approach and prognostic evaluation is mainly based on Masaoka staging and World Health Organization classification. Targeted therapy will represent an important treatment option for TETs with an aggressive histology.