New Perspectives for Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma Approach Improvement

Abstract

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is rare but it represents the deadliest type of thyroid cancer, characterized by a rapid course. Diagnosis is usually made on a late stage, when more than half of the patients have distant metastasis. Thus, treatment options are mainly palliative and lack of efficacy. With the mutational landscape investigation and the discover of new targets, new directed treatments are also being tried. Considering the current tendency to be more conservative at multinodular goiter approach and some differentiated thyroid carcinomas treatment, it is very important to understand which may evolve to anaplastic cancers. Our main purpose is to review the current information on anaplastic thyroid aetiology and risk factors which may contribute to an earlier diagnosis, and also to give new perspectives about the most recent treatment options and future directions, in particular, multikinase inhibitors, BRAF inhibitors and other directed agents aiming to stabilize the tumour growth and enable radical surgery with curative intent.