title: Multimodality therapeutic outcomes in anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: improved survival in subgroups of patients with localized primary tumors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of a multimodality treatment for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinical data of 40 consecutive patients treated between 1985 and 2009 were retrospectively analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median survival time (MST) stratified by clinical stage was 6.0 months for stage IVB and 4.2 months for stage IVC. When the stage IVB patients were classified into 2 groups (IVB-a and IVB-b) in accord with the extent of involvement of the tumor, the MST of the patients with IVB-a (9.6 months) was significantly longer than that of patients with IVB-b (4.0 months) (p < .05). The MST of the patients treated with surgery followed by radiation and chemotherapy (13.7 months) tended to be longer compared with the patients treated with 2 or fewer modalities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The patients with a less-invasive primary tumor may gain a survival benefit from aggressive multimodality therapeutic approaches.
authors.affiliation: Division of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Shinshu University School of Medicine, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Japan. kenito@shinshu-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Ken-Ichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hanamura
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Murayama
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Michihiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harada
authors.forename: Tokiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koyama
authors.forename: Toshiharu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kanai
authors.forename: Kazuma
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maeno
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mochizuki
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Amano
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D065646:Thyroid Carcinoma, Anaplastic; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D013965:Thyroidectomy