Yonsei Med J.  2012 Mar;53(2):352-357. 10.3349/ymj.2012.53.2.352.

Treatment Outcome of Patients with Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer: A Single Center Experience

• Lim SM
• Shin SJ
• Chung WY
• Park CS
• Nam KH
• Kang SW
• Keum KC
• Kim JH
• Cho JY
• Hong YK
• Cho BC

• KMID: 1120202
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2012.53.2.352

Abstract

PURPOSE
Anaplastic thyroid cancer is known to have a poor prognosis due to its aggressive and rapid metastasis with median survival of less than 6 months. Multimodal treatment involving surgery and chemoradiotherapy has been used to improve the survival of patients. Here, we retrospectively review of treatment outcome of 13 consecutive patients who were treated at a single center.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 13 anaplastic thyroid cancer patients who received multidisciplinary treatment between 2006 and 2010. Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used to analyze progression-free survival and overall survival of patients.
RESULTS
The median patient age at diagnosis was 69 years, and six patients had stage IVc diseases. Eight patients received primary surgery followed by radiotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Five patients received weekly doxorubicin-based definitive CCRT, but only one patient's condition remained stable, while the rest experienced rapid disease progression. The median progression-free survival was 2.8 months (95% CI, 1.2-4.4 months), and the median overall survival was 3.8 months (95% CI, 3.0-4.6 months).
CONCLUSION
Patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer showed poor prognosis despite multimodality treatment. Therefore, identification of novel therapeutic targets is warranted to take an effective mode of treatment.

Keyword

Anaplastic thyroid cancer; treatment outcome; prognosis; survival; chemoradiotherapy

MeSH Terms

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use
Combined Modality Therapy
Disease-Free Survival
Doxorubicin/therapeutic use
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Retrospective Studies
Thyroid Neoplasms/*drug therapy/mortality
Treatment Outcome

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Overall survival (black line) and progression-free survival (dotted line) in patients with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. OS, overall surrival; PFS, progression-free survival.

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