Treatment of recurrent thyroid cancers--is there a light in the horizon?

摘要

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Thyroid cancer is a rare tumour. In spite of this, its incidence is increasing faster than any other tumour. The reported response rates of recurrent thyroid cancer to chemotherapy are generally poor. Molecular studies have provided some information on their biology and have identified new targets with therapeutic potential. RECENT FINDINGS: Ever since the seventies, no major breakthrough has been achieved in terms of chemotherapy in advanced/recurrent thyroid cancer. Anaplastic thyroid cancer, for instance, has not shown any improvement in overall survival during the past 40 years. Several agents are currently being tested that target molecular signalling and cancer cell biology, and will be reviewed in this paper. SUMMARY: Some of these new targeted approaches hold promise for our future ability to treat patients with advanced thyroid cancer unresponsive to traditional therapy. The success of these molecular-targeted agents is dependent on the molecular abnormalities involved in carcinogenesis as well as on well designed clinical trials to study these new agents.