Imaging is integral in the management of patients with thymoma and thymic carcinoma. At initial diagnosis and staging, imaging provides the clinical extent of local invasion as well as distant metastases to stratify patients for therapy and to determine prognosis. Following various modalities of therapy, imaging serves to assess treatment response and detect recurrent disease. While imaging findings overlap, a variety of CT, MRI, and PET/CT characteristics can help differentiate thymoma and thymic carcinoma, with new CT and MRI techniques currently under evaluation showing potential.

Mediastinal masses present a diagnostic challenge due to their diverse etiologies. Accurate localization and internal characteristics of the mass are the two most important factors to narrow the differential diagnosis or provide a specific diagnosis. The International Thymic Malignancy Interest Group (ITMIG) classification is the standard classification system used to localize mediastinal masses. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are the two most commonly used imaging modalities for characterization of the mediastinal masses.

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy is a recently approved breakthrough in adoptive immunotherapy, with high efficacy in relapsed or refractory hematologic malignancies and promising future ap... Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a recently approved breakthrough treatment that has become a new paradigm in treatment of recurrent or refractory B-cell lymphomas and pediatric or...

Immune checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy has changed the treatment landscape of advanced non–small cell lung cancer, may cause pseudoprogression, and can lead to inflammatory side effects, termed ... The normal immune system identifies and eliminates precancerous and cancerous cells. However, tumors can develop immune resistance mechanisms, one of which involves the exploitation of pathways, te...

Understanding the advantages and limitations of each thymic imaging modality enables radiologists to select the correct imaging technique, improve the quality of image acquisition and measurements,... Thymic imaging is challenging because the imaging appearance of a variety of benign and malignant thymic conditions are similar. CT is the most commonly used modality for mediastinal imaging, while...

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women in the United States. Accurate staging is needed to determine prognosis and devise effective treatment plans. The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) has made multiple revisions to the tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) staging system used by the Union for International Cancer Control and the American Joint Committee on Cancer to stage lung cancer. The eighth edition of this staging system includes modifications to the T classification with cut points of 1 cm increments in tumor size, grouping of lung cancers associated with partial or complete lung atelectasis or pneumonitis, grouping of tumors with involvement of a main bronchus regardless of distance from the carina, and upstaging of diaphragmatic invasion to T4. The N classification describes the spread to regional lymph nodes and no changes were proposed for TNM-8. In the M classification, metastatic disease is divided into intra- versus extrathoracic metastasis, and single versus multiple metastases. In order to optimize patient outcomes, it is important to understand the nuances of the TNM staging system, the strengths and weaknesses of various imaging modalities used in lung cancer staging, and potential pitfalls in image interpretation.