Anaplastic thyroid cancer natural history, complications and prognosis
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Ammu Susheela, M.D. [2]
Overview
Natural History
Complications
Prognosis
The overall 5-year survival rate of anaplastic thyroid cancer has been given as 7%[1] or 14%,[2] although the latter has been criticized as being overestimated.[2]
Treatment of anaplastic-type carcinoma is generally palliative in its intent for a disease that is rarely cured and almost always fatal, with worse prognosis associated with large tumours, distant metastases, acute obstructive symptoms, and leukocytosis. Death is attributable to upper airway obstruction and suffocation in half of patients, and to a combination of complications of local and distant disease, or therapy, or both in the remainder.
Anaplastic thyroid cancer is extremely aggressive; in most cases death occurs in less than 1 year as a result of aggressive local growth and compromise of vital structures in the neck. ATC in most series has a median survival of 4 to 5 months from the time of diagnosis, with rare long-term survivors.[3]
References
- ↑ cancer.org > Thyroid Cancer By the American Cancer Society. In turn citing: AJCC Cancer Staging Manual (7th ed).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Numbers from National Cancer Database in the US, from Page 10 in: F. Grünwald; Biersack, H. J.; Grںunwald, F. (2005). Thyroid cancer. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 3-540-22309-6. (Note:Book also states that the 14% 10-year survival for anaplastic thyroid cancer was overestimated)
- ↑ Kumar V, Abbas AK, Fausto N, and Mitchel RN, "Robbins basic Pathology", Saunders, 8th ed., 2007.