Thymic carcinomas are particularly more concerning due to their aggressive metastatic nature and shorter overall survival, in comparison to their lesser-malignant thymoma counterparts. This necessitates the need for systemic therapy. Due to the paucity of thymic carcinoma cases, the ideal regimen for locally advanced or metastatic thymic carcinomas is not defined.To this point, there has not been a study using imatinib in thymic tumors expressing the KIT tyrosine kinase protein or PDGF tyrosine kinase protein. This study is important to demonstrate if single agent activity is noted for patients with thymic tumors over expressing c-kit and/or PDGF. If this current trial is positive, it opens the door to evaluate other combination of drugs with imatinib in thymic tumors.
This study is important to demonstrate if single agent activity is noted for patients with thymic tumors over expressing c-kit and/or PDGF. If this current trial is positive, it opens the door to evaluate other combination of drugs with imatinib in thymic tumors.