When do you consider preoperative chemoRT v. chemotherapy in unresectable thymoma or thymic carcinoma?
The current NCCN guidelines reserves radiation for patients who are not resectable after induction chemotherapy. Does it make sense to offer concurrent treatment?
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
I believe that the best systemic therapy for thymoma is anthracycline-based (e.g. cisplatin, doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide (PAC)) as these regimens have historically about a 20-30% higher response rate than non-anthracycline regimens. As such concurrent radiotherapy is not permissible beca...