About Surgery for Mediastinal Masses

Surgery is a primary treatment for thymic mass, especially in the disease’s early stages. Treatment goals for surgery are to:

• Eliminate as much of the tumor as possible by removing the tumor and a margin of healthy tissue
• Relieve symptoms of advanced cancer that has spread (metastasized) to other parts of the body.

Surgery may be a treatment option for all thymic tumors or germ cell tumors. It is not usually an option for lymphomas that develop as a condition called bulky mediastinal disease. Lymphomas are usually treated with drug therapy or a combination of drug therapy and radiation therapy.