Table 5. Selected studies reporting on pre-operative chemotherapy or chemoradiation for locally-advanced thymic tumours

	Subjects n	Tumour type	Study	Regimen	Agents	Doses	Response rate %
Single-agent chemotherapy
Bonomi [90]	21	T/TC	Phase II	Cisplatin		50 mg·m⁻² every 3 weeks	10
Highley [91]	15	T/TC	Retrosp	Ifosfamide		1.5 g·m⁻²×5 days every 3 weeks	46
Loehrer [92]	27	T/TC	Phase II	Pemetrexed		500 mg·m⁻² every 3 weeks	17
Combination chemotherapy
Fornasiero [93]	32	T	Retrosp	ADOC	Adriamycin	40 mg·m⁻² every 3 weeks	85–92
					Cisplatin	50 mg·m⁻² every 3 weeks
					Vincristin	0.6 mg·m⁻² every 3 weeks
					Cyclophosphamide	700 mg·m⁻² every 3 weeks
Loehrer [94]	30	T/TC	Phase II	CAP	Cisplatin	50 mg·m⁻² every 3 weeks	51
					Adriamycin	50 mg·m⁻² every 3 weeks
					Cyclophosphamide	500 mg·m⁻² every 3 weeks
Giaccone [95]	16	T	Phase II	PE	Cisplatin	60 mg·m⁻² every 3 weeks	56–60
					Etoposide	120 mg·m⁻²×3 days every 3 weeks
Loehrer [96]	34	T/TC	Phase II	VIP	Etoposide	75 mg·m⁻²×4 days every 3 weeks	32
					Ifosfamide	1.2 g·m⁻²×4 days every 3 weeks
					Cisplatin	20 mg·m⁻²×4 days every 3 weeks
Lemma [97]	46	T/TC	Phase II	Carbo-Px	Carboplatin	AUC 5 every 3 weeks	43
					Paclitaxel	225 mg·m⁻² every 3 weeks
Palmieri [98]	15	T/TC	Phase II	CAP-GEM	Capecitabine	650 mg·m⁻² b.i.d.×14 days every 3 weeks	40
					Gemcitabine	1000 mg·m⁻²×2 days every 3 weeks
Okuma [99]	9	TC	Retrosp	Cisplatin-irinotecan	Cisplatin	80 mg·m⁻² every 4 weeks	56
					Irinotecan	60 mg·m⁻²×3 days every 4 weeks

T: thymoma; TC: thymic carcinoma; Retrosp: retrospective; ADOC: adriamycin, cisplatin, vincristine and cyclophosphamide; CAP: cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and cisplatin; PE: platin and etoposide; VIP: etoposide, ifosfamide and cisplatin; Carbo-Px: carboplatin and paclitaxel; CAP-GEM: capecitabine and gemcitabine; AUC: area under the curve.