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Surgery, adjuvant therapy yielded locoregional control in poorly differentiated thyroid cancer
Patients with poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma demonstrated excellent locoregional control after appropriate surgery and adjuvant therapy, data from a recent study suggest. Targeting tumor progression pathways may offer improvement in disease control and improve disease-specific survival, according to Tihana Ibrahimpasic, MD, of the department of head and neck surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer, and colleagues.
“Disease-specific deaths occur due to distant metastases and rarely due to uncontrolled locoregional recurrence in this series,” researchers wrote.
For their study, Ibrahimpasic and colleagues evaluated the outcomes of 91 patients with primary poorly differentiated thyroid cancers (PDTC) who were treated by surgery with or without adjuvant therapy from 1986 to 2009.
Fifty-month data indicated that the 5-year overall survival was 62% and disease-specific survival was 66%. Moreover, the 5-year locoregional control was 81% and the distant control was 59%, researchers wrote.
The researchers identified 27 disease-specific deaths, of which 23 (85%) were due to distant disease, according to data.
Patients who died of PDTC were more likely to be aged at least 45 years (P=.002), have larger tumors (P=.0004), extrathyroidal extension (P=.008), higher pathological tumor stage (P=.05) and distant metastasis (P<.0001), according to data.
An age of at least 45 years, pathological tumor size >4 cm, larger pathological tumors, extrathyroidal extension, positive margins and distant metastasis were all predictive of worse disease-specific survival after univariate analysis.
However, multivariate data indicated that only pathological tumors staged IVA and distant metastases were independent predictors of worse disease-specific survival, according to data.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.