title: Investigation of the validity of UICC stage grouping of anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma arises from differentiated carcinoma and has a very aggressive character. In this study, we investigated the prognosis of patients with anaplastic carcinoma based on UICC stage.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated the prognosis of 75 patients who were diagnosed as having anaplastic carcinoma at Kuma Hospital between 1983 and 2006. Of these patients, 14, 49 and 12 were classified into Stages IVA, IVB, and IVC respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Stage IVA patients showed a significantly better prognosis than Stage IVB or IVC patients (p = 0.0017). All patients with Stage IVC died of carcinoma within 1 year regardless of whether locally complete resection was performed. Prognosis of Stage IVB patients who underwent curative surgery did not differ from that of Stage IVA patients, but the prognosis of those who did not undergo surgery or only received palliative surgery was as poor as that of Stage IVC patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Extensive surgical treatment is recommended for Stage IVA patients and palliative care is appropriate for Stage IVC patients. For Stage IVB patients, surgical treatment as a primary therapy is appropriate only when curative resection of the tumour is expected.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Kuma Hospital, Kobe City, Japan. ito01@kuma-h.or.jp
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Takuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Higashiyama
authors.forename: Mitsuyoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hirokawa
authors.forename: Mitsuhiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fukushima
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Tomonori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yabuta
authors.forename: Chisato
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tomoda
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Uruno
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kihara
authors.forename: Yuuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takamura
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miya
authors.forename: Kaoru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Fumio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Matsuzuka
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miyauchi