Treatment outcome of patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer: a single center experience.
OBJECTIVE
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.


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).


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Sun Min
SM
Lim
Sang-Joon
SJ
Shin
Woong Youn
WY
Chung
Cheong Soo
CS
Park
Kee-Hyun
KH
Nam
Sang-Wook
SW
Kang
Ki Chang
KC
Keum
Joo Hang
JH
Kim
Jae Yong
JY
Cho
Yun Kyoung
YK
Hong
Byoung Chul
BC
Cho
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004317:Doxorubicin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D065646:Thyroid Carcinoma, Anaplastic; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D004317:Doxorubicin