A Re-Examination of Neoadjuvant Therapy for Thymic Tumors: A Long and Winding Road

Abstract

For most patients with advanced thymic epithelial tumors (TETs), a complete resection is a strong indicator of a better prognosis. But sometimes, primary surgery is unsatisfactory, and preoperative therapy is needed to facilitate complete resection. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is the most used form of preoperative therapy. But studies on neoadjuvant chemotherapy have included mainly patients with thymoma; its efficacy in patients with thymic carcinoma is less known. Neoadjuvant chemoradiation has also been explored in a few studies. Novel therapies such as immunotherapy and targeted therapy have shown efficacy in patients with recurrent/metastatic TETs as a second-line option; their role as preoperative therapy is still under investigation. In this review, we discuss the existing evidence on preoperative therapy and the insight it provides for current clinical practice and future studies.