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. 2025 Mar;47(3):813-821.
doi: 10.1002/hed.27940. Epub 2024 Oct 27.

Pemetrexed-carboplatin salvage therapy in advanced thyroid cancers

Kenzie K Lee  1 , John C Morris 3rd  1   2 , Aditi Kumar  3 , Ashish V Chintakuntlawar  2 , Candy Peskey  2 , Crystal R Hilger  2 , Keith C Bible  2 , Mabel Ryder  1   2
Affiliations

Pemetrexed-carboplatin salvage therapy in advanced thyroid cancers

Kenzie K Lee et al. Head Neck. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

Background: The overall survival of patients with advanced thyroid cancers that have progressed following targeted therapies is limited, indicating a strong need for salvage treatments.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients with refractory advanced thyroid cancer treated with pemetrexed-carboplatin (PC) at Mayo Clinic since 2019.

Results: Eleven patients, three with anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), seven with differentiated or poorly differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), and one with oncocytic carcinoma of the thyroid, were treated with novel salvage PC. Patients with DTC (n = 7) had durable responses with a median progression-free survival of 29 months. One responder included a patient with ATC whose disease progressed following pembrolizumab/axitinib, lenvatinib, and dabrafenib/trametinib. On this fourth line treatment, the patient remains on therapy to date, over 12 months after initial response.

Conclusions: This case series reinforces prior published phase I clinical trial data and shows that pemetrexed can have potent efficacy in the treatment of the most advanced thyroid cancers.

Keywords: advanced thyroid cancer; anaplastic; poorly differentiated; radioactive iodine refractory; salvage.

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References

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