Thyroid Cancer

For patients who can tolerate aggressive multimodal therapy for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, survival rates can exceed historical outcomes, according to a retrospective study of patients treated at the Mayo Clinic.

It is too soon to determine the influence of radiation exposure on thyroid cancer risk among children and adolescents exposed to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, according to the lead author of findings presented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the ATA.

Release of newly revised, evidence-based clinical management guidelines for thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancers were announced at the 85th Annual Meeting of the ATA.

A new study has found an excess of thyroid cancer cases among children and adolescents who live near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Papillary thyroid cancer patients at intermediate risk according to guidelines can be reclassified as low risk when postoperative stimulated thyroglobulin is low.

Overweight and obesity are associated with the risk for thyroid cancer. Relations between BMI and cancer risk showed some variation based on tumor histologic type.

A population-based study in Minnesota showed that a recent rapid rise in the incidence of thyroid cancer is attributable to the increased diagnosis of clinically occult, subclinical lesions.

Survivors of thyroid cancer had a higher risk of unemployment at 2 years post-diagnosis and decreased income at both 2 and 4 years, according to the results of a study.

The presence of cervical lymph node metastases was associated with compromised survival even in younger patients with papillary thyroid cancer.

Use of transcriptional data taken from the FNA of thyroid nodules could help in predicting recurrence post surgery in certain thyroid cancer patients.

Two subgroup analyses of the SELECT trial could help clarify which differentiated thyroid carcinoma patients will benefit most from lenvatinib.

First-line lenvatinib may improve progression-free survival in patients with 131I-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer with no prior history of VEGF therapy.

Adding everolimus to sorafenib at the time of progression of advanced radio-iodine refractory differentiated thyroid carcinoma was tolerable and active.

Cabozantinib failed to significantly increase overall survival compared with placebo in patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma, according to the EXAM study.

Tumor growth rate analysis may be a valuable efficacy parameter to consider in patients with sorafenib-treated, radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer.

A small Greek case-control study found that drinking herbal teas, and in particular chamomile tea, over a long period of time is linked to a decreased risk of developing thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases.

The multi-targeted TKI lenvatinib showed promise in a phase II trial of patients with advanced, radioiodine-refractory, differentiated thyroid cancer.

A new population-based study has found that patients with thyroid cancer who are treated with radioactive iodine therapy are at increased risk for developing salivary cancer as a second malignancy.

A recent study found that women diagnosed with breast cancer are at increased risk for developing thyroid cancer, prompting the authors to encourage regular screening for the disease in breast cancer survivors.

Despite well-established guidelines from the American Thyroid Association, radioactive iodine continues to be overused for some forms of thyroid cancer.

The FDA has approved lenvatinib (Lenvima) for the treatment of patients with progressive, differentiated thyroid cancer refractory to radioactive iodine.

Researchers have uncovered two mutations in thyroid tumors that make the tumor either very sensitive to treatment with everolimus, or confers resistance.

Results of a new study show that cancer rates among children and adolescents are stable, but rates of certain cancers such as renal carcinomas are increasing.

An analysis of thyroid cancer diagnosis and incidence in the United States suggests that there is an epidemic of diagnosis rather than an epidemic of thyroid cancer per se.

The FDA has approved sorafenib (Nexavar) for the treatment of metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer.

Data presented at ASCO from the phase III DECISION trial showed treatment with the TKI sorafenib (Nexavar) delayed disease progression by 5 months in patients with metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer that had progressed on radioactive iodine.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved cabozantinib (Cometriq) for the treatment of metastatic medullary thyroid cancer, a rare type of thyroid cancer that makes up about 4% of all cases.

A new study shows that obese patients are more likely to have advanced papillary thyroid cancer and for the cancer to be of an aggressive subtype.

In rare diseases, the “magic” lies in close collaboration between individual investigators at academic institutions, the pharmaceutical industry, and funding institutions such as the National Cancer Institute.

Like Burnison and Lim, we conclude conveying our sense of optimism that progress is being made-and that important clinical questions are being asked related to the care of patients afflicted with ATC. We believe, however, that in the final analysis, important progress will remain highly dependant upon collaborations conducted across specialties, across institutions, and across nations.