Treatments for thymoma

The following are treatment options for thymoma. Your healthcare team will work with you to develop a treatment plan.

Surgery is the main treatment for thymoma. The type of surgery 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 used for stages 1, 2 and 3 of thymoma. It is often the only treatment that is needed for stage 1 thymoma.

Surgery is not usually used for stage 4 thymoma because the cancer has already spread to other parts of the body. It may be done to remove as much of the cancer as possible to help reduce the symptoms caused by the cancer. It may be offered after chemotherapy or chemoradiation to shrink the tumour.

Recurrent thymoma may be treated with surgery if possible.

Find out more about surgery for thymus cancer.

Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays or particles to destroy cancer cells. External radiation therapy is the type of radiation therapy used to treat thymoma. It is usually given after surgery (post-operative radiation therapy or PORT).

External radiation therapy is used after surgery for stages 2 and 3 of thymoma.

Stage 4 thymoma is treated with external radiation therapy after chemotherapy or chemoradiation.

Radiation therapy is not used to treat stage 1 thymoma because it has not been found to improve survival.

Find out more about radiation therapy for thymus cancer.

Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells.

Chemotherapy or chemoradiation may be offered for stages 3, 4 and recurrent thymoma, if the tumour can’t be removed with surgery.

The most common chemotherapy combinations used are:

• CAP – cisplatin, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide
• cisplatin and etoposide
• carboplatin and paclitaxel

Other drugs that may be given with chemotherapy are prednisone and octreotide (Sandostatin).

Find out more about chemotherapy and other drugs for thymus cancer.

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.

Talk to your doctor about clinical trials open to people with thymoma in Canada. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, find and treat cancer. Find out more about clinical trials.