Treatments for thymic carcinoma
The following are treatment options for thymic carcinoma. Your healthcare team will work with you to develop a treatment plan.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. Chemotherapy is the main treatment for thymic carcinoma that canʼt be removed with surgery (stages 3 and 4).
The chemotherapy drugs or combinations used to treat thymic carcinoma include:
- CAP – cisplatin, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide
- VIP – etoposide, ifosfamide and cisplatin
- ADOC – doxorubicin, cisplatin, vincristine and cyclophosphamide
- cisplatin and etoposide
- carboplatin and paclitaxel
- pemetrexed
Octreotide (Sandostatin) is a drug that may be given with chemotherapy for thymic carcinoma to slow and control the growth of advanced or metastatic cancer.
Find out more about chemotherapy and other drugs used to treat thymus cancer.
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays or particles to destroy cancer cells.
External radiation therapy is the type of radiation therapy used to treat thymic carcinoma. It is given after surgery (post-operative radiation therapy or PORT). It is given on its own or at the same time as chemotherapy (called chemoradiation).
Chemoradiation may be used as the main treatment for thymic carcinoma that can’t be removed by surgery.
Find out more about radiation therapy for thymus cancer.
Surgery
The surgery used to treat thymic carcinoma is a total thymectomy, which removes the whole thymus gland. Tissue from around the thymus is removed if the cancer has grown into it.
Surgery is usually offered for stages 1 and 2 of thymic carcinoma. It may be offered after chemotherapy for stage 3 or stage 4 thymic carcinoma if it's possible to remove the cancer.
If you can’t have or don’t want cancer treatment
You may want to consider a type of care to make you feel better without treating the cancer itself. This may be because the cancer treatments don’t work anymore, they’re not likely to improve your condition or they may cause side effects that are hard to cope with. There may also be other reasons why you can’t have or don’t want cancer treatment.
Talk to your healthcare team. They can help you choose care and treatment for advanced cancer.
Clinical trials
Talk to your doctor about clinical trials open to people with thymic carcinoma in Canada. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, find and treat cancer. Find out more about clinical trials.
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