New therapies for anaplastic thyroid cancer.

Abstract

Anaplastic thyroid cancer is a rare but extremely aggressive type of thyroid cancer. Treatment typically consists of surgery, external beam radiotherapy and cytotoxic chemotherapy. However, available literature suggests only modest survival benefit for cytotoxic chemotherapy. Recent advances have suggested the combination of BRAF and MEK inhibition may have a profound and durable effect on patients with BRAFV600E-mutated anaplastic thyroid cancer, with a response rate of 69%. Other systemic treatments, including immunotherapies, have also shown promising but more limited results. Many clinical trials assessing the efficacy of kinase inhibitors and immunotherapies are currently ongoing.

• Authors: V R Agrawal, J Hreno, T Patil, D W Bowles
• Journal: Drugs of today (Barcelona, Spain : 1998) (Drugs Today (Barc)) Vol. 54 Issue 11 Pg. 695-704 (Nov 2018) ISSN: 1699-3993 [Print] Spain
• PMID: 30539168 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)
• Copyright: Copyright 2018 Clarivate Analytics.

Chemical References

• Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological
• Biomarkers, Tumor
• Protein Kinase Inhibitors

Topics

• Animals
• Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological (adverse effects, therapeutic use)
• Biomarkers, Tumor (antagonists & inhibitors, genetics, immunology, metabolism)
• Drug Resistance, Neoplasm
• Genetic Predisposition to Disease
• Humans
• Molecular Targeted Therapy
• Phenotype
• Protein Kinase Inhibitors (adverse effects, therapeutic use)
• Signal Transduction (drug effects)
• Thyroid Carcinoma, Anaplastic (drug therapy, enzymology, genetics, immunology)
• Thyroid Neoplasms (drug therapy, enzymology, genetics, immunology)
• Treatment Outcome