title: Age as a prognostic factor in anaplastic thyroid cancer.
abstract: Background. Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is one of the tumors with the shortest survival in human medicine. Aim. The aim was to determine the importance of age in survival of patients with ATC. Material and Methods. We analyzed the data on 150 patients diagnosed with ATC in the period from 1995 to 2006. The Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used to determine overall survival. Prognostic factors were identified by univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Results. The youngest patient was 35 years old and the oldest was 89 years old. According to univariate regression analysis, age was significantly associated with longer survival in patients with ATC. In multivariate regression analysis, patients age, presence of longstanding goiter, whether surgical treatment is carried out or not, type of surgery, tumor multicentricity, presence of distant metastases, histologically proven preexistent papillary carcinoma, radioiodine therapy, and postoperative radiotherapy were included. According to multivariate analysis, besides surgery (P = 0.000, OR = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.29-0.63), only patients age (P = 0.023, OR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.49-0.95) was independent prognostic factor of favorable survival in patients with ATC. Conclusion. Age is a factor that was independently associated with survival time in ATC. Anaplastic thyroid cancer has the best prognosis in patients younger than 50 years.
authors.affiliation: Center for Endocrine Surgery, Clinical Center of Serbia, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia ; School of Medicine, Belgrade University, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Vladan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zivaljevic
authors.affiliation: Center for Endocrine Surgery, Clinical Center of Serbia, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6793-046X
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tausanovic
authors.affiliation: Center for Endocrine Surgery, Clinical Center of Serbia, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia ; School of Medicine, Belgrade University, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8718-7503
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Paunovic
authors.affiliation: Center for Endocrine Surgery, Clinical Center of Serbia, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia ; School of Medicine, Belgrade University, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Aleksandar
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9909-7548
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diklic
authors.affiliation: Center for Endocrine Surgery, Clinical Center of Serbia, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia ; School of Medicine, Belgrade University, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Nevena
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1188-4249
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kalezic
authors.affiliation: Center for Endocrine Surgery, Clinical Center of Serbia, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Goran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zoric
authors.affiliation: Center for Endocrine Surgery, Clinical Center of Serbia, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sabljak
authors.affiliation: Surgical Clinic, KBC Dedinje, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Berislav
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vekic
authors.affiliation: Surgical Clinic, KBC Dedinje, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Rastko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zivic
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Belgrade University, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Jelena
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marinkovic
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Belgrade University, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sipetic