Surgical Treatment of Stage I and II Thymus Epithelial Tumors

Thymic epithelial tumors are the most common tumors of the anterior mediastinum, with an incidence of 0.18 per 100,000 population. Here, we present a review of the national and foreign literature on the surgical treatment of stage I and II thymic epithelial tumors. The Medline (PubMed) and Russian Science Citation Index (eLibrary) databases were used as search engines. The focus of the review is the problem of choosing the optimal minimally invasive surgical approach for thymectomy, and the need for lymph node dissection for thymic epithelial tumors. A number of issues remain currently unresolved in thymic epithelial tumors surgery, namely the justification of the preoperative histological verification of the tumor process, the choice of the optimal surgical access to the anterior mediastinum, the need for and prognostic effect of lymph node dissection, and the determination of the required volume of the planned operation.