Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov 24;14(23):5784.
doi: 10.3390/cancers14235784.

Prognosis of Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer with Distant Metastasis

Jin-Seok Lee  1 , Jun Sung Lee  1 , Hyeok Jun Yun  1 , Hojin Chang  1 , Seok Mo Kim  1 , Yong Sang Lee  1 , Hang-Seok Chang  1 , Cheong Soo Park  2
Affiliations

Prognosis of Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer with Distant Metastasis

Jin-Seok Lee et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is derived from follicular thyroid cells and is associated with high mortality risk. Obtaining information to characterize ATC is difficult because ATC with distant metastasis is extremely rare. This study determined the clinical characteristics of ATC with distant metastasis. The medical records of 152 patients with ATC at Gangnam Severance Hospital were reviewed between January 2004 and March 2022. The primary endpoint was the overall survival of the total patient sample, patients with ATC and distant metastasis, and those with ATC and brain metastasis. Of the 152 patients with ATC, 88 had distant metastasis at diagnosis. The 5-year disease-specific survival was 24% for total ATC and 10% for ATC with distant metastasis. Survival for >1 year was 32% for total ATC and 15% for ATC with distant metastasis. The median survival rate differed significantly between the total ATC and ATC with distant metastasis groups (228.5 vs. 171 days). Among the ATC cases, 11% had brain metastasis; thus, brain MRI or CT is worth considering at diagnosis and follow-up, even if there were no statistical difference in overall survival between patients with ATC with and without brain metastasis.

Keywords: anaplastic thyroid cancer; brain metastasis; distant metastasis; prognosis of anaplastic cancer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Overall survival of ATC with and without distant metastasis, (B) Overall survival of ATC with and without brain metastasis, (C) Overall survival of ATC with single site metastasis and multiple site metastasis. ATC, Anaplastic thyroid cancer; DM, Distant metastasis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lim H., Devesa S.S., Sosa J.A., Check D., Kitahara C.M. Trends in thyroid cancer incidence and mortality in the united states, 1974–2013. JAMA. 2017;317:1338–1348. doi: 10.1001/jama.2017.2719. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Casella C., Fusco M. Thyroid cancer. Epidemiol. Prev. 2004;28:88–91. - PubMed
    1. Siegel R., Ma J., Zou Z., Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2014. CA Cancer J. Clin. 2014;64:9–29. doi: 10.3322/caac.21208. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Londero S.C., Krogdahl A., Bastholt L., Overgaard J., Trolle W., Pedersen H.B., Bentzen J., Schytte S., Christiansen P., Godballe C. Papillary thyroid microcarcinoma in denmark 1996-2008: A national study of epidemiology and clinical significance. Thyroid. 2013;23:1159–1164. doi: 10.1089/thy.2012.0595. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Smallridge R.C., Copland J.A. Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: Pathogenesis and emerging therapies. Clin. Oncol. 2010;22:486–497. doi: 10.1016/j.clon.2010.03.013. - DOI - PMC - PubMed