Mediastinal tumors can be cancerous or benign (not cancer) and can develop in any of the organs or tissues in the mediastinum, the space in your chest cavity that contains your heart, aorta, esophagus, thymus, thyroid, trachea, lymph nodes and nerves.
Mediastinal tumors are generally rare and require special expertise to diagnose and treat effectively. At Roswell Park, our team does this every day.
Why Roswell Park for mediastinal tumors?
We are recognized by the National Cancer Institute as one of the nation’s elite comprehensive cancer centers. Learn more about what this means for you.
What sets us apart
Latest treatment advances
We offer state-of-the-art treatments for mediastinal cancers that include photodynamic light therapy for pleural mesothelioma, CAR T-cell therapies for lymphomas and other options unavailable from other providers.
Treatment
Comprehensive support care
We treat you, and not just your cancer, offering a broad range of services to help you cope with the emotional, financial and day-to-day concerns related to your illness.
Types of mediastinal tumors
Your thymus is a small organ located between your lungs, in front of and above your heart, and behind the sternum. It is vital to the production of special white blood cells called T cells, an important part of the immune system that can both attack cancer cells and be attacked by cancer cells.
Your esophagus is an approximately 10-inch tube that is the part of the digestive system that allows food and liquid to travel from your mouth to your stomach. Esophageal tumors develop when the cells of the esophagus mutate and begin to grow out of control.
Mesothelioma is a rare, aggressive cancer linked to asbestos exposure that affects the cells of the lining that covers and protects many of your internal organs. Many people think mesothelioma only occurs in your lungs, but it can also lead to mediastinal cancers in the lining of your heart, or heart sac, called the pericardium.
Lymphoma refers broadly to the more than 90 complex cancer types that start in the cells, tissues and organs that make up your body’s disease-fighting lymphatic system. The lymphatic system includes the lymph nodes and thymus gland housed in the mediastinum.