Survival comparison between thymic carcinoma and thymic carcinoid: does it matter in clinical practice?

Thymic carcinoma (TC), a cancer derived from thymic epithelial cells, was first recognized by Shimosato and associates in 1977 in a study of 8 squamous cell carcinomas of the thymus (1). Thymic carcinoid was initially described by Rosai and Higa in 1972 as a “mediastinal endocrine neoplasm”, a separate entity from thymoma (2). Both TC and thymic carcinoid were previously categorized as Type C thymoma.