Chemotherapy Plus Cetuximab Followed by Surgical Resection in Patients With Locally Advanced or Recurrent Thymoma or Thymic Carcinoma

Inclusion Criteria: * Age\>18 * Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) ≥ 70 * Newly diagnosed or recurrent thymoma - WHO A, AB, B1, B2, or B340, or thymic carcinoma pathologically confirmed at MSKCC, MDACC or City of Hope * No prior chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgical therapy (other than for diagnostic biopsy) for thymoma * No prior treatment with cetuximab * Clinical Masaoka Stage II (\>5cm), III, or IVA(See Appendix B), including suspected invasion of mediastinum, pericardium, lung, great vessels or chest wall, and/or pleural metastases Normal marrow function: leukocytes ≥ 4,000/μl, absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,500/μl, platelets ≥ 160,000/μl * Adequate renal function, with creatinine ≤ 1.3 mg/dl or calculated creatinine clearance ≥60ml/min by Cockcroft and Gault equation using parameters of age, weight (kg), and baseline serum creatinine (mg/dl) * Adequate hepatic function: Total bilirubin ≤1.5 mg/dl, AST ≤1.5X UNL, alkaline phosphatase ≤1.5 UN * Signed informed consent * Effective contraception * Medically operable Exclusion Criteria: * Evidence of distant metastatic disease (Masaoka stage IVB) * Thymic carcinoid * Patients must not be receiving any other investigational agents * Concurrent or prior malignancy in the last 5 years other than non-melanoma skin cancer and in-situ carcinoma of the cervix * Known HIV-positive patients receiving combination anti-retroviral therapy are excluded from the study because of possible pharmacokinetic interactions with the study dru…