Correlation between 18F-FDG PET/computer tomography findings and histology in thymic epithelial tumors: current evidences and clinical implications.

There is a certain body of evidence [1,2] suggesting that thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) may be distinguished in different WHO classification subgroups – ‘low-risk’ thymomas (A, AB, and B1) vs. ‘high-risk’ thymomas (B2 and B3) – with different prognosis while thymic carcinomas clearly stay as a separate class with poorer prognosis, as clearly emerged in recent meta-analysis [3]. As a consequence of these evidences, the therapeutic strategy may be adapted according to histology by performing (neo) adjuvant chemoradiotherapy in selected high-risk thymomas and, above all, thymic carcinoma cases. In particular, neoadjuvant chemo(radio)therapy appears as a useful tool to increase the likelihood of a complete resection at the time of surgery [4,5].