# Thymic epithelial tumours: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-esmo-thymic-epithelial-tumours-guideline-ann-oncol-2015/  
OnCo record `paper-esmo-thymic-epithelial-tumours-guideline-ann-oncol-2015` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The European guideline for thymoma and thymic carcinoma, built on the French RYTHMIC network's experience: complete surgery where possible, radiotherapy for invasive tumours and platinum chemotherapy for disease that cannot be removed.

## Summary

ESMO guideline covering the diagnosis, WHO histological typing, Masaoka-Koga and TNM staging, surgery, postoperative radiotherapy, induction chemotherapy for locally advanced tumours, chemotherapy and targeted agents for advanced disease, and follow-up of thymic epithelial tumours, with treatment recommended through multidisciplinary tumour boards such as RYTHMIC.

It recommends complete resection as the cornerstone, postoperative radiotherapy for stage III and incompletely resected tumours and for thymic carcinoma, cisplatin-based combinations for unresectable disease, and lists octreotide, sunitinib and everolimus as options after chemotherapy.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-18
- Journal: Annals of Oncology
- Year: 2015
- DOI: 10.1093/annonc/mdv277
- Authors: Girard N, Ruffini E, Marx A, et al.
- What it means: The thymoma and thymic carcinoma pages follow this guideline for who gets surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy; its central message is that these rare tumours should be discussed in an expert network.
- Caveats: Most recommendations rest on retrospective series; no randomised trial has compared surgery with or without radiotherapy.; Predates the lenvatinib and pembrolizumab studies in thymic carcinoma.

## Sources

- Ann Oncol 2015: https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdv277
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26314779/

## Connected records

- cancers: [Thymic carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/thymic-carcinoma/), [Thymoma (WHO types A, AB, B1, B2 and B3)](https://onco.cc/cancers/thymoma/)
- drugs: [Cisplatin](https://onco.cc/drugs/cisplatin/), [Everolimus](https://onco.cc/drugs/everolimus/), [Sunitinib](https://onco.cc/drugs/sunitinib/)
- journals: [Annals of Oncology](https://onco.cc/journals/annals-of-oncology/)

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