Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer

Excerpt

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is a rare, aggressive malignant tumor accounting for 2% to 3% of all thyroid gland neoplasms. In contrast to differentiated thyroid malignancies such as papillary and follicular thyroid cancers, anaplastic thyroid cancer is undifferentiated. Furthermore, anaplastic thyroid cancer is highly locally invasive, with a propensity for early lymph node positivity and distant metastatic disease.

Anaplastic thyroid cancer typically presents as a rapidly growing anterior neck mass and may have compressive symptoms early in the disease. The diagnosis is typically made by fine needle aspiration cytology, although a core needle biopsy is more sensitive and specific. All patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer should be assessed for systemic disease. While patients with locoregional disease can occasionally be cured, the disease is uniformly fatal with distant spread. Treatment can include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and, more recently, targeted therapy. Recent advances in molecular diagnostics have identified several mutations that could be targeted in the future.