Rare thoracic cancers: a comprehensive overview of diagnosis and management of small cell lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma and thymic epithelial tumours.

Despite the progress in outcomes seen with immunotherapy in various malignancies, including nonsmall cell lung cancer, the benefits are less in small cell lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma and thymic epithelial tumours. New effective treatment options are needed, guided via more in-depth insights into the pathophysiology of these rare malignancies. This review comprehensively presents an overview of the clinical presentation, diagnostic tools, staging systems, pathophysiology and treatment options for these rare thoracic cancers. In addition, opportunities for further improvement of therapies are discussed.
Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: D.W. Dumoulin reports personal fees from Roche, BMS, MSD, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Novartis. P. Bironzo declares honoraria from AstraZeneca, BMS, BeiGene, Roche and Takeda; an institutional research grant from Roche and Pfizer; and virtual meeting registration from Amgen and Daiichi Sankyo. F. Passiglia declares advisory/consultant fees from MSD, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Amgen, Sanofi, Beigene and Thermofisher Scientific. G.V. Scagliotti declares honoraria from AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, MSD, Pfizer, Roche, Johnson & Johnson and Takeda; consulting or advisory roles for Eli Lilly, Beigene, AstraZeneca and Verastem; institutional research funding from Eli Lilly, MSD and Tesaro; and travel and accommodation from Bayer. J.G.J.V. Aerts declares honoraria and nonfinancial support from MSD, BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Amphera, Eli Lilly, Takeda, Bayer, Roche and AstraZeneca, outside the submitted work. In addition, J.G.J.V. Aerts has a patent allogenic tumour cell lysate licensed to Amphera, a patent combination immunotherapy in cancer pending, and a patent biomarker for immunotherapy pending.
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