Pediatric mediastinal tumors: clinicopathologic spectrum

The mediastinal lesions in the paediatric age group are very heterogenous and are classified according to their location as it is done in the adults. They may arise from the lungs, pleura or the other mediastinal structures. The most common entities of this region in the children are the lymphomas, thymic lesions, germ cell tumors and the mesenchymal tumors. There are certain typical characteristics of these masses in the children varying in their clinical presentations as well as the histomorphology. Also, the clinical challenges of diagnosing and managing these lesions in this highly vulnerable age group are immense. Therefore, keeping in mind the nuances of this delicate age group, the present focused issue was framed with an aim to highlight the subtle differences in the clinical and the pathological features of the entities existing in the mediastinum in this age group. The different clinical presentations and their medical and surgical managements have been incorporated in one comprehensive review. Similarly, the recent advances and challenges faced in the newer treatment modality of video assisted thoracoscopic surgery in this tender age group has been highlighted in the second article. Finally, the differences in the morphological characteristics of the commonest entities as mentioned earlier have been summarized in separate reviews for those neoplasms.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the Editorial Office, Mediastinum for the series “Pediatric Mediastinal Tumors” published in Mediastinum. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/med.2020.01.02). The series “Pediatric Mediastinal Tumors” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. DJ serves as an unpaid editorial board member of Mediastinum from Aug 2018 to Aug 2020 and serves as the unpaid Guest Editor of this series. The author has no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Deepali Jain