Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma: An Update

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is a rare and undifferentiated form of thyroid cancer. Its prognosis is poor: the median overall survival (OS) of patients varies from 4 to 10 months after diagnosis. However, a doubling of the OS time may be possible owing to a more systematic use of molecular tes...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cancers 2022-02, Vol.14 (4), p.1061
Main Authors: Jannin, Arnaud, Escande, Alexandre, Al Ghuzlan, Abir, Blanchard, Pierre, Hartl, Dana, Chevalier, Benjamin, Deschamps, Frédéric, Lamartina, Livia, Lacroix, Ludovic, Dupuy, Corinne, Baudin, Eric, Do Cao, Christine, Hadoux, Julien
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Biopsy
Cancer
Cancer therapies
Cell cycle
Cervix
Chemotherapy
Diagnosis
Disease management
Dysphagia
Dyspnea
Epidemiology
Gene expression
Immunotherapy
Life Sciences
Medical prognosis
Metastases
Metastasis
Morphology
Mutation
Ostomy
Pathology
Patients
Prognosis
Proteins
Radiation therapy
Review
Surveillance
Thyroid cancer
Thyroid carcinoma
Tumor microenvironment
Tumorigenesis
Tumors
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is a rare and undifferentiated form of thyroid cancer. Its prognosis is poor: the median overall survival (OS) of patients varies from 4 to 10 months after diagnosis. However, a doubling of the OS time may be possible owing to a more systematic use of molecular tests for targeted therapies and integration of fast-track dedicated care pathways for these patients in tertiary centers. The diagnostic confirmation, if needed, requires an urgent biopsy reread by an expert pathologist with additional immunohistochemical and molecular analyses. Therapeutic management, defined in multidisciplinary meetings, respecting the patient's choice, must start within days following diagnosis. For localized disease diagnosed after primary surgical treatment, adjuvant chemo-radiotherapy is recommended. In the event of locally advanced or metastatic disease, the prognosis is very poor. Treatment should then involve chemotherapy or targeted therapy and decompressive cervical radiotherapy. Here we will review current knowledge on ATC and provide perspectives to improve the management of this deadly disease.
ISSN:2072-6694
2072-6694
DOI:10.3390/cancers14041061